Aussie non-major bank Bankwest has launched two campaigns for its Halo Payment Ring and credit card products.

The campaigns were developed by Union, WPP AUNZ’s bespoke national group model created to service the Perth-based Bankwest account. They are Union’s first campaigns to market for Bankwest since the business was won following a competitive pitch last year.

Aimed at the 18 to 45 market, the new creative platform aims to differentiate Bankwest from the crowd and seeks to revive the fun tone and style that the bank was traditionally recognised for.

The key campaign elements comprise a 30-second TVC for Bankwest’s Halo Payment Ring and three 15-second TVCs for its credit cards. Both are supported by digital display, out of home (animation and static) and social.

Ewan Mitchell, team leader at Union, said the creative challenge was to highlight the benefits of Bankwest’s products in a simple and compelling way, so the decision was made by the creative team to make characters and animation the focus of the new direction.

“We needed to ensure the creative balanced factual content with a sense of fun and simplicity,” he said.

“Animation was the obvious choice to help us tell Bankwest’s story in an uncomplicated and convincing way.

“We have brought a whole new visual style and a new TOV designed to be simple and fun and stand out from the crowd, whilst bringing clarity of the benefits of the key products to life.”

Andrew Chanmugam, executive general manager of customer experience at Bankwest, said: “Bankwest is adopting new ways of working and embracing emerging technologies so we can respond rapidly to changing customer needs in this digital age, so it’s exciting to re-focus the brand, revisit our creative roots and deliver great products and services our customers are telling us they want.”

Both campaigns will initially run for several weeks across all channels.

CREDITS

Client: Bankwest

Agency: Union

Chief creative officer: Paul Nagy

Executive creative directors: Derek Green and Rob Martin Murphy

Associate creative director: Andrew Hankin

Senior creative director: Andy Cooke

Senior art director: Paris Giannakis

Copywriter: Chris Johnson

Producers: Samantha Daley and Lauren Billingham

Client services director: Ewan Mitchell

Project director: Jo Gibb

Project manager: Rebecca Grapiglia

Animation/production house: Buck

Director: Buck

Creative director: Gareth O’Brien

Executive producer: Erica Ford

Associate creative director: Lucas Brooking

Art director: Luke Saunders

Producer: Jordan Howes

CG leads: Michael Lampe and Elijah Akouri

Production companies: Hogarth and The Brand Agency

Media agency: Ikon Communications