Exclusive: ASB Bank ‘Creating Futures’ via Droga5 New Zealand launches tonight
CB Exclusive – ASB Bank’s new campaign, via Droga5 NZ, launches tonight with a multi-format, comprehensive rebrand – from TVCs, outdoor and digital innovations all the way down to new business cards. The bank has replaced the line ‘one step ahead’ with ‘creating futures’.
The campaign opens nationwide tonight with a 30 second TVC (‘The Hub’) followed by two TVCs (‘The Chance’ and ‘Mint Sauce’) which air a week later.
The teaser, called ‘The Hub’ is an abstract introduction to a myriad of characters and situations to be revealed over time in an identical version of The Hub online as well as TV. The first ad highlights a couple’s struggle with IVF, while the second shows a young boy’s efforts to save for a Nintendo, with more to come in the new year.
“We’ve tried to make everything with much more depth and rich experience than you’d expect from a massive corporate institution,” says D5 creative director Corey Chalmers. “Authenticity was hugely important, so every TVC is based on real ASB stories, using real staff where possible, with an activation that brings each idea to life. For example, we’ve helped create a special IVF program with ASB to help fund hopeful couples. That’s a great way to help create a future.”
The website is rich with detail using a contemporary ‘bullet-time’ navigation and in-depth content. “Even the print has a story,” says Guy Roberts, co-creative director. “It’s not just an ad, it’s a canvas for future star illustrators, designers and typographers, complete with their own urls on the ads for people to visit if they love the work. In the near future we’ll be launching much more content such as digital brand innovations, unique promotions which blur the lines of TV and online, and surprising ideas that will force you to look at each ad far more carefully.”
17 Comments
I really like them. Nice work fellas.
I have to confess I was all ready to hate on these based on the rumour that it was the next Anchor family. Lovely treatment and great talent. Very nice work.
Tried to hate them. Couldn’t.
This is really lovely work. Well done team. Let’s hope all the people who constantly hate everything that everyone else does can recognise this as well.
Nothing wrong with these.
They’re good. Very human.
Wasn’t sure what to expect after the NBR unveiling.
Leaves BNZ in the dust. There’s a brand that can’t find it’s way out of a paperbag at the moment.
Good work Debs.
The teaser threw me a bit, but the other two felt really snug. Fabulous talent, very unbanky – nice. Had that same feel-goodness as those NZ Post ads.
Not bad. Nothing out of the box though. Which is what we’ve been led to expect from the Droga franchise.
teaser was arse, the other two are better. Not a new strategy by any stretch but nicely told stories. And when you compare it to the tosh lavander have just served up for westpac it’s 1 null to New Zulland
Beautifully done. No big idea. The old ‘ show what it means to real people’ again. But nice stories, very well told.
I suspect this will go down a lot better with the advertising community than Goldstein ever did (not saying much, Goldstein was panned from beginning to end), but nowhere near as well with the public. Let’s see if this one lasts 10 years.
Lovely story telling, very believable, nicely done team.
These are nice ads old school ads.
I agree with Andrea – the teaser left me a bit bemused, but the full length ads were sweet. Nice work.
more Gregor Nicholas gold, nice work guys
Beautifully executed schmaltz. Couldn’t follow the Mint Sauce spot. IVF reprehensible exploitation, with utterly predictable ending. BTW is everyone at Droga a creative director?
Mint Sauce? More like CHEESE Sauce
OMG – Love Mint Sauce! Where did you find that kid, great stuff guys. I can see issues ‘though with kids all across the country wanting a pet sheep to watch TV with.
ASB has recently launched a new ad campaign that is very questionable .
I contacted the Advertising Standards Authority to file a complaint and was told that they were receiving lots of complaints. The issue is a moral/social one whereas ASB probably thought they were doing a “warm fuzzy”. Crux of ad: couple can’t conceive and get a loan from ASB to do pay for IVF treatments. Below is a copy of the complaint I sent to ASB.
This seems to be an ad that was designed to generate sympathy for an unfortunate group of people who have trouble with conception. Unfortunately their inability to afford IVF and the need to take a loan for these purposes is an extremely dangerous social concept to be selling. If potential parents can’t afford IVF how are they going to afford to have a child? There is no caveat that says that one needs a house or any collateral. What’s the collateral? The child?
Loans are good things to help people afford to buy houses and businesses to grow. Putting people (who obviously can’t afford IVF) into debt is not a very productive approach in an era when people are being asked to increase savings. This ad was not thought out and sends a very damaging picture: “don’t think about the consequences of your actions, just go into debt for what you want now”. Or alternatively: “It’s OK to go into debt to have kids”. How is this acceptable?
As I recall it costs around $400,000 to raise a child, this obviously takes being frugal and saving. Starting off with a debt to pay off is hardly the road towards doing this job right and could seriously undermine a couple’s ability to climb out of debt/poverty. Making a loan available to people who are emotionally desperate and possibly not thinking about the financial consequences, is not necessarily a kindness and could be seen in retrospect as cynical. It is fairly obvious that your TV couple couldn’t save enough for the treatment on their current income. With a child how will they afford a loan they couldn’t save for, plus the cost of raising the child?
As a depositor of significant funds in your bank the only way in which I can show my extreme disapproval is by not providing those funds to a bank that encourages people who can’t afford to have kids to go into debt to do so. Being part of creating a cycle of poverty is not how I would want to see my deposits used.
Please reconsider this ad in the full light of the social implications of the message you are sending. We would appreciate a response ASAP that tells us whether you are withdrawing the ad and a time frame.