Kiwibank marks 10-year anniversary with new brand campaign via Ogilvy featuring 10-year old Kiwi kids and Neil Finn track ‘Can you hear us?’
Kiwibank has launched a new brand campaign today marking its 10 years in New Zealand with a TVC featuring 10-year old Kiwi kids, backed by a new recording of a classic Neil Finn track that will help raise funds for The NZ Music Foundation.
Developed with Ogilvy, the TVC centres around a group of 10-year-old Kiwis pledging what they’ll stand for, set to the soundtrack of Finn’s song “Can You Hear Us?” re-recorded by Jeremy Redmore of Midnight Youth, and overseen by Finn himself.
Nicky Ashton, Head of Marketing for Kiwibank, says that Finn’s involvement in the campaign is “a real coup”, as it’s the first time the iconic Kiwi songwriter has ever agreed to lend one of his tracks to a commercial entity.
Finn is a patron of the recently established New Zealand Music Foundation, a not-for-profit charitable trust that funds projects enriching the lives of New Zealanders in need through music.
Kiwibank and Finn have agreed that all the proceeds from the first 20,000 downloads of the soundtrack – to be available exclusively on the Kiwibank website – will go to The NZ Music Foundation.
Ashton says the campaign aims to give voice to Kiwibank’s devotion to New Zealand as a nation, and its call for Kiwis to “back our own”.
“Neil, like Kiwibank, is a devoted Kiwi who shares similar views on this country and backing our own for the good of all New Zealanders. We are taking this opportunity on our 10th anniversary to renew our vow to stand up for New Zealanders who demand respect, better experiences, products, services and attitudes.
“By involving these kids who have grown up with Kiwibank, we were keen to channel their unbridled optimism and their cheeky, lovable devotion to the cause.”
Ashton says Kiwibank has altered the banking landscape over the past decade, with many of its initiatives now accepted as industry standard, such as fee-free transaction accounts, reduced service and exception fees, highly competitive lending rates and bank ‘switching’.
“After a decade of success and growth, this campaign shows Kiwibank’s challenger spirit is alive and well.”
36 Comments
This is horrific. A complete loss of any challenger brand attitude, now just bland and smulchy. Just because the bank is growing up it doesn’t need to lose it’s challenger attitude. The cheese is taking over. What happened here?
Reminded me of Telecom T3G. Except this is done without great performance or direction.
with that the ecd left the building…
whoa.
i’d use a tired old strategy and ladle hot steaming naffness all over it.
would you?
What surprises me is that anyone still submits work to this site, maybe adland’s masochistic streak is stronger than I thought. Look up sado-masochism in the dictionary these days and the def. will be “open-forum Advertising Blogs”. Didn’t watch the Kiwibank ad so no comment on that.
This will be our angle now thanks agencies. Get the brief ready. Kiwibank does, we follow. You know how it is.
Did they have some old Weetbix footage left over?
This is contrived to the point of absurdity. ‘I stand up for …’, yeah that sounds natural. The dialogue – sorry collection of monologues – was so obviously scripted by an adult that any charm the kids may have brought to it is lost.
Kiwibank seemed to hit a sweet spot a few years back. Somehow they managed to say ‘stand up for the little guy’ without doing anything as naff as just saying the words. Now that’s gone and they just say the words.
Handing out free coffees to commuters and other random acts of kindness, cool. Making this tvc, diabolical waste of money. It has no sustainable strategy, no essential truth and no idea. It just uses the master brand document that every other brand in the country is using – kiwis blah blah, new zealanders blah blah, punch above our weight blah blah, challenger blah blah, godzone blah fucking blah.
Someone’s laughing all the way to the bank and it’s not me
Where am I?
Kids say the unfunniest things.
And Kiwi Bank leaves Ogilvy in 4, 3, 2 …
I liked it.
I don’t care if pop royalty wrote the track, it’s unforgivable to mispronounce the name of country this bank is supposed to represent.
I do like the idea of a “10-year-old kiwi” but had to laugh at the leftover Weetbix footage. Great call.
Pitch! Pitch! Pitch!
I wanted to like it. Kiwi kids, doing kid things. I felt bad not relating to it.
But ‘Nooooo!’ put it perfectly: “…so obviously scripted by an adult that any charm the kids may have brought to it is lost.”
Shame, because it should be likeable.
I like it. I hate ANZ, why doesn’t a bank just say they’ll look after my money? rather than living in my world and people watching/creeping around in bars and parks.
I do also like the Wheetbix comment though.
I love how the kid jumps off the rocks at the end. How many young lives are lost in NZ due to stupid acts such as these? Tragic I say. Why didn’t they just film kids taking ecstasy pills from TicTac boxes? Lame. Poorly thought out.
Actually i wouldn’t
So this is the result of arguably a brief that has been around for 10 years to celebrate a milestone that has been coming for 10 years?
replace the kid’s line to camera with simple super and let it play out to a end graphic.
I smell danger –
More like I smell fuckwit, what a joke you are. You think that kids jumping off a rock is in the same league as taking pills? You’re the lame one mate. And I feel sorry for your kids.
@ I smell fuckwit – you really think jumping off rocks is an ok message to relay to kids then? I’m the one who feels sorry for your ‘lame’ kids mate.
TSB Bank.
I can see why there are no credits on the work – who is responsible for this steamer? CD? Copywriter? Art Director? Strategy? Who did this???
Wow. I found this add refreshing exciting and being a kiwi kid myself once it brought back memories of my childhood … Jumping of rocks and being a kid … I also thought it represented more than just the celebration of ten years but a suttle nudge in the direction of let’s stand up against asset sales so kiwi bank is here for our kids !!! Well done I think 🙂
I’m coming to kiwi bank !!!!!!! V
Q: What’s more useless than a bunch of creatives bitching about creative work behind a digital wall of anonymity?
A: when those creatives are right.
What a pile of absolute junk.
Wish this write up had been more damning: http://marque.co.nz/kiwibank-turns-10-the-day-the-music-died
I like it !!
Dito
Guess you guys ^ there are the perfect consumer; how easily sucked in are you guys.
P.S. who would want to trust their money to a bunch of ten year olds?
Better angle would have been: 10 years banking experience, NOT we are 10 therefore act like 10 year old chidren.
These ads are just wrong. They are no different to the Soviet propaganda of the Lenin era. The only difference is, it’s for the purpose of a company instead of politics or war. Using children for the purpose of advertising a bank is exploitation, and it is exactly what the Soviet Union and other totalitarian/fascist states did in the early 20th century, and probably still do to this day in North Korea. I’m considering changing bank because of this crap.
I’d consider you get a life !!!!
I loved everything about this TVC! It has a real ‘feel good’ vibe. The music is fantastic and very evocative and the kids are all beautiful young, healthy New Zealand kids with a bit of spunk. I loved this!