Australian-owned, founder-led FinTech company NOW Finance is set to release a new partnership with entertainer and comedian Urzila Carlson, letting its customers know, ‘what you see is what you get’.
Over the past decade, NOW Finance has carved out a successful niche for itself in the personal loan space and continues to perform strongly even in the current volatile economic head winds. It’s settled more than A$750 million of new loans to around 33,000 Australian consumers, and it has steadily built up its share of the personal loans market, mainly at the expense of the Big 4 banks, but it’s also performing well relative to other NBL competitors. However, one of its key ongoing challenges is how to continue to grow its business.
Previously, its advertising and marketing activity has focused on customer acquisition rather than brand. More recently, though, it has identified that in order to remain competitive and maintain momentum, it needs to bring greater awareness to NOW Finance.
Having previously worked on some of the most loved finance brands and campaigns, Chris Maccan (Head of Marketing at NOW Finance) is leading NOW Finance’s journey to becoming the most loved brand in the non-bank lending space. NOW Finance has a long history of doing things differently, and being rather quiet about it and with the help of Urzila Carlson, hopefully that’s about to change.
NOW Finance’s long term partnership with Urzila is the foundation of Chris’ strategy to engage NOW Finance’s audience over the long term; to build awareness and familiarity with their unique ‘no fee and none of the bank’ proposition, and make people laugh while doing it.
It’s a unique approach, one that distinguishes the brand from the competition and embodies their disruptive fintech spirit. In an increasingly competitive market, NOW Finance aims to bolster awareness and continue to win over customers from traditional banks, with a fraction of their marketing budget – the four major banks are spending approximately 10x – 20x more on marketing annually than NOW Finance.
Urzila Carlson says, ‘‘I’m really excited to partner with NOW Finance, a mover and disruptor in the finance industry – it’s about time the big banks got a shake-up.”
“People will probably think, ‘comedian and banking, what’s the link?’ But that’s just the point – I embody NOW Finance’s ‘none of the bank’ ethos, because when you think banking, I’m definitely not the picture that pops into your head…. nothing could be further from the traditional image of stuffy, corporate banker than me!”
”It’s the first time I’ve fronted a campaign like this. Hopefully with my blunt honesty and calling a spade a bloommin’ shovel, I can engage audiences and demonstrate that with NOW Finance, what you see is what you get – like moi”
The ‘smarter, not harder’ approach is evident in NOW’s media buy, with traditional media activity (inefficient and expensive) rejected in favour of new and more innovative channels including an integrated mix of Screens (BVOD, SVOD, Short Form, YouTube), Audio (Programmatic Digital Streaming, Podcasts), Display (High Impact, Programmatic, standard), social (Facebook, Instagram), Outdoor (OOH).
Lead agencies on the campaign were Hugh Nairn’s Cavalry Group and Match & Wood.
