When Westpac partnered with the NRLW and News Australia, the trio were challenged with making long-term financial planning feel relevant to women aged 16–55.
What followed was a campaign that spoke about grit, resilience and the rewards of consistent small actions—and it worked. The success came from solving a behavioural insight, not just a communications challenge, allowing the bank to cut through the noise and genuinely resonate with its audience.
“Women in the category aren’t disengaged because they don’t understand finance. They’re actually quite well versed in it. But rather than long term planning, it can sometimes feel a bit abstract and disconnected from their daily lives. So rather than pushing harder on the rational product messages, we focused on future self relevance,” chief client officer, Spark Foundry Australia, for Westpac told B&T.
Bacic added that Westpac used the culture and storytelling of NRLW to reposition financial planning from a mundane obligation into something tied to identity and self-growth—making it more meaningful, and ultimately, more likely to drive action.
“Money wasn’t the barrier, it was the mindset shift. Money too early keeps people stuck in the ‘I know, I should know’, but I’m not at that ready stage. So we actually took it into focusing on the behaviours that sit underneath that, financial empowerment, consistency, discipline, trusting, the process, and those are the concepts that people are actually already understanding of in other aspects of their life. Be it their health, their wealth, etcetera. Once people see financial decisions as part of personal growth story, the engagement follows naturally,” added Bacic.
That behavioural insight helped shape where and how the campaign showed up.
The campaign became a clear demonstration of purpose-led marketing in practice. By partnering with the NRLW at a moment when interest in women’s sport is rapidly accelerating, Westpac positioned itself as a brand championing progress and opportunity for women.
Through editorial content across news.com.au, championed by Body+Soul, whose audience aligned closely with the campaign’s target demographic, the storytelling leaned heavily on athletes’ lived experiences. These stories reframed financial planning as a long-term journey built through small, consistent decisions over time.
In doing so, the campaign moved beyond awareness into cultural relevance. It didn’t interrupt audiences with financial messaging; it embedded the brand within narratives of resilience, ambition and progress that audiences were already engaging with.
One story that resonated highly with audiences was an article written by Marlee Silva on the rise of one of the NRLW’s greatest players of all time, Ali Briggenshaw.
Pat Cunningham, head of sponsorship at Westpac said this is because NRLW “stories are actually richer”.
“There’s a long runway of growth and opportunity in these individuals. The semi professional status of a lot of them actually makes the story quite fascinating,” he added.
But just because the story is richer doesn’t mean people will read the stories. Westpac needed to have the right platform who can reach a broad audience.
“From our perspective, this was a content led campaign. Content is an important point of advantage for us, we have this unique ability to scale that advantage, and in this case in support of Westpac, significant commitment to women’s sport and what they were trying to achieve through that messaging,” said Ian Patterson, GM client partnerships NSW, News Australia, on why the platform was chosen by Westpac.
Like a Brigginshaw grubber, this move landed for both Westpac and News.
News Australia increased its editorial stories on women’s sport by 54 per cent year on year, its audience spent 83 per cent more time consuming women’s sport content and NRLW articles published also increased by 65 per cent.
Patterson highlighted that within the upped editorial output, News Australia “made a conscious shift” to bring the audience closer to the athletes by telling their stories rather than just reporting on the NRLW live.
The campaign also highlighted the growing role of editorial environments in brand storytelling. Rather than relying solely on traditional advertising formats, Westpac leveraged trusted media platforms to create contextually relevant narratives, allowing the brand’s purpose to be demonstrated rather than simply stated.
The results reflected this shift in strategy.
A Kantar study found perception shifts roughly doubled across three key measures: that Westpac supports women’s sport, supports the interests of its audience, and is championing women in Australia.
Beyond the metrics, the campaign offers a broader lesson for marketers: when brands connect with the passions and cultural movements that matter to their audiences, even the most complex or low-interest categories can become meaningful and engaging.
These metrics wouldn’t have been achievable without the media agency, Spark Foundry.
On the sporting front, Westpac is leading the charge when it comes top supporting women’s rugby league in Australia.
“Our involvement with the NRLW goes back to its inception. We were part of the pitch for the St George Illawarra Dragons to be accepted into being one of the first four teams, by writing references and presenting for them to the NRL. Whilst the Westpac league partnership in recent years is probably the more prominent one, our involvement with women’s rugby league goes back quite a fair way,” concluded Cunningham.
