The Campaign

For many in the community even if you're ‘out’ and completely comfortable with your sexuality, holding hands with a partner in public can still feel awkward, tense or even scary – sometimes making it easier to just let go. So we encouraged people to #HOLDTIGHT instead. We wanted to celebrate the simple act of LGBTI couples holding hands. We made it a mainstream conversation, spreading ANZ’s message to the community to ‘stay strong, be resilient, equality is coming.

Execution

The campaign began with ANZ publishing a series of interviews online, featuring staff members sharing stories about holding hands. A day ahead of Valentine’s Day, Media relations provided the sobering support by going to market with ANZ’s research findings. A film was then shared online, showing a situation all-too-real for so many LGBTI people when holding hands in public - the moment where they let go. It appeared via every ANZ owned social channel. Radio was put to air featuring key spokespeople, ensuring the message would be heard well beyond metro cities. Bringing the message to life during Mardi Gras, ANZ launched a piece of wearing tech, a custom wristband that used infrared to detect proximity between two wearers - lighting up when they held hands. Billboards featuring same sex couples holding hands wearing the wristbands also ran. A custom emoji was also developed to appear when people used #HOLDTIGHT

Media were keen to report on the evolution of ANZ’s support of Mardi Gras, with 456 media items falling across Australia New Zealand and international titles. Coupled with the films’ more than 12 million views and 150,000 shares, there were nearly 750 million campaign impressions in total. The most resounding result was the 100% positive tone in the reporting by third parties. In past years the flamboyance of ANZ’s Mardi Gras campaigns had sometimes divided the community, however, the truth at the heart of #HOLDTIGHT resonated extremely well. Social sentiment was at 98% positive in response to the campaign - The highest the bank had ever seen. Official brand tracking data put ANZ as the only one of the big four banks in Australia to achieve nett positive sentiment on social media during this time. All of this resulting in the most successful sponsorship campaign ANZ had ever created.

The Situation

ANZ Bank wanted to do something that would resonate in a meaningful way with not just the LGBTI community, but spark change beyond it. However, being that the campaign insight was something nuanced and personal to the community, many outside of it lacked an understanding of how meaningful and important it was. PR, therefore, was fundamental to the success of the work, ensuring ANZ’s #HOLDTIGHT message filtered into the mainstream, sparking the necessary conversations, and changing perceptions.

The Strategy

ANZ wanted to show support for the LGBTI community so media targeting began with LGBTI publications. #HOLDTIGHT, however, also targeted non-LGBTI, as it gave this loving gesture new perspective. The media relations strategy was significantly different to earned efforts of ANZ’s past campaigns in that it went beyond being ‘out and proud’, and instead, started a conversation in earned channels around a genuine issue facing the community. The role of PR was to support the campaign by sharing evidence of the insight gained through research, that could then be shared by credible third parties. The research not only validated the insight, it demonstrated a disconnect between what the community feels holding hands in public, versus how the public views the act, which is what third-parties predominantly took up. The campaign was then launched in the lead up to Valentine's Day, when the subject of showing love was being publicly discussed.