THE UNSTOPPABLE SQUAD

TitleTHE UNSTOPPABLE SQUAD
BrandWESTPAC
Product / ServiceWESTPAC EVERYDAY BANKING ACCOUNTS
CategoryA06. Financial Products & Services, Commercial Public Services, Business Products & Services
EntrantMEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media MEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation MEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Tom Hexton MediaCom Junior Creative
Josh Butt MediaCom Head of Content Production
Andrew DaSilva MediaCom Account Director
Victoria Nguyen MediaCom Performance Executive
Gemma Hunter MediaCom Executive Creative Director
Simon Jarosz MediaCom Creative Director
Taylor Thornton MediaCom Senior Creative
Alexandra Gough MediaCom Content Strategy Director
Tessa Wood MediaCom Head of Content Operations

The Campaign

Banks believe money makes you happy and Millennials know a rich life makes you happy so we created THE UNSTOPPABLE SQUAD - a group of relatable young Aussies with the ambition to explore, discover and create their own futures. We gave them a Westpac account with $18,000 and captured their unguided and uncensored lives by asking them to answer a brief; show us what it means to live unstoppable in 2016. Armed with a video camera they began living unstoppable. We didn’t want a receipt; we wanted to see their dreams come alive. From different backgrounds, Stefan, a film director, Vanessa, a hip-hop teacher and Hannah, a business owner, all delivered. We buddied them up with our creative, content strategist and social planners and created rich stories across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat & Tumblr that competed in a newsfeed dominated by friends travel adventures and the latest Kim and Kanye news.

Creative Execution

An explosive trailer launched the series teasing glimpses of what it means to live unstoppable. We promoted one story at a time, weaving the tale of their adventures, aspirations and achievements across the platform that best suited its nature. For example, Instagram provided inspiration allowing Stefan’s trip to Ghana to reach a travel hungry audience through captivating #travel #inspo, Snapchat gave behind the scenes, raw realism to his gritty adventure and we distributed the full length story on Facebook around inspirational travel blogs achieving scale and reach. We launched new stories every two weeks and optimized spend to the best performing formats. We invited young Aussies to explore the Westpac Tumblr, a destination hosting additional content, sharing out animated gifs and sparking interest towards the full stories. Facebook Canvas layered with Direct Response activity re-targeted anyone who’d engaged with The Unstoppable Squad showing Westpac banking products supporting their lifestyle.

The Unstoppable Squad’s shenanigans reached over 3.3m young Aussies. Over 1.7m young Aussies watched the squad in action and their stories were so relatable, inspiring and honest that there were over 1 million social engagements. The videos incredibly received between 14 – 18% engagement rates, FOUR TIMES Westpac usually sees. A quote on Vanessa’s video read, “Your such an inspirational soul ‘Ness!” Average view times were 65% while Snapchat received amazing 45% open rates. 59% of interactions on Tumblr were organic engagements generated through likes and reblogs of our goofy gifs and videos. The interaction was an astonishing 554% higher than the benchmark for financial brands on Tumblr. We received 42,384 clicks to Tumblr to discover more and 26,500 clicks to Westpac’s website to find out more about everyday banking products. The Unstoppable Squad captured the feeling of what it means to be a young today, “…Live life” wrote Siddharth Kothari.

In a time when banking institutions are perceived as caring more about profit than people, it’s no surprises that young Aussies don’t care much for banks. Our idea was a bold media, content & creative strategy delivering a message saying exactly the opposite. This mind blowing social content didn’t just break banking conventions; it set the tone for how the bank will communicate to young Aussies in the future. Our creative & paid strategy expertise shaped specific stories for young audiences across different social platforms. Thumb-stopping content enabled us to deliver Westpac banking products to millennials in an inspiring way.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Young people are busy working, partying; a million things are more interesting than hearing from a bank. No good story at a bar ever started with “I’m saving up for…” so we decided to capture a collective culture of young Aussies embracing the freedom their youth offers. Rather than an advertisement telling them about product benefits, we talked in their language through the most authentic means possible. THE STRATEGY; show them, them, living unstoppable. Show everyday Aussies living unstoppable and inspire others to have the confidence to follow their dreams. We weren’t just in and around content they were watching, we were the content they chose to watch. We ruthlessly crafted thumb-stopping moments and shared only inspiring stories that delivered the true meaning of living unstoppable. We met browsing habits across social platforms and planned our approach around nocturnal viewing, snacking breaks and downtime on weekends.

Links

Website URL