By Gareth Vaughan
ANZ New Zealand, the country's biggest bank, significantly increased advertising spending through its ANZ brand in the first eight months of the year as it reined in advertising spend on the National Bank brand.
Based on figures supplied to interest.co.nz by Nielsen AIS, ANZ NZ spent NZ$17.7 million on advertising the ANZ brand in the eight months to August 31 this year, compared with just NZ$14.6 million in the entire 2010 calendar year. In contrast, National Bank advertising spending totaled just NZ$2.3 million in the eight months to August, compared with NZ$16.7 million in 2010.
ANZ NZ is currently reviewing its continued use of the National Bank brand, with a decision possible by year's end. Mike Smith, CEO at ANZ Banking Group, told interest.co.nz in March that he'd like to see ANZ and National Bank customers able to use the banks as one because operating two separate banks in New Zealand was inefficient.
ANZ bought National Bank from Britain's Lloyds TSB in October 2003 for A$4.915 billion, excluding a dividend paid to Lloyds of NZ$575 million from National Bank's retained earnings, and retained both the ANZ and National Bank brands and branch networks. Last year ANZ renewed its rights to use the Lloyds black horse on a green and white background as the National Bank logo until the end of 2014.
The ANZ Group's focus these days is very much on Asia. Touting itself as a "super regional" bank, ANZ recently brought its first global brand campaign to New Zealand with television advertisements featuring Aussie actor Simon Baker in character as Patrick Jane from television show The Mentalist. ANZ is also an official sponsor of the Rugby World Cup and has been heavily featuring the rugby tournament in its advertising for several months.
The most visible National Bank advertising has been the for the places you'll go campaign. Meanwhile, front-line National Bank staff have been wearing ANZ branded shirts on Fridays during the World Cup.
The second biggest advertising spender among the major banks in the eight months to August was ASB. During the period ASB, which launched a high profile new marketing campaign Creating Futures in late 2010 in place of its popular and long running Ira Goldstein adverts, spent NZ$15.5 million, almost as much as the NZ$15.53 million it spent in all of 2010, according to the Nielsen AIS figures.
Third biggest spender was Westpac at NZ$9.3 million, compared with NZ$12.45 million last year. Fourth was BNZ at NZ$7.5 million compared with NZ$8.9 million in 2010, followed by Kiwibank at NZ$5.1 million versus NZ$8.7 million in the full 2010 year.
All up, in the eight months to August, the six banks spent NZ$66.4 million on advertising compared with NZ$95.2 million in the full 2010 year. ANZ accounted for 27% of the NZ$66.4 million total, ASB 23%, Westpac 14%, BNZ 11%, Kiwibank 8% and the National Bank just 4%, well down on its 18% share of total 2010 spend.
At NZ$95.2 million, the total 2010 advertising spending by the big six banks was up from NZ$73.1 million in 2009 and NZ$78.6 million in 2008, Neilsen AIS says.
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5 Comments
just ensure you check all their fees out as they seemed to have many stranges fees that dear I admit the Aussie banks dont seem to have as they have all become more competitive . It also depends what your product needs are and how you use your accounts.Watch the TSB they have strange interest calculations which include paying interest on the minimum monthly balance ( Not good for you if you have a flucuating balance as you only get interest for the whole month on the lowest balance and then they only pay it to you annually )Kiwibank charges some new fees I have never had at Westpac like a fee if you get a printout of your transactions from the branch and also have the highest fees for an Airpoints credit card with the lowest points reward out of the three on offer which was the reason I was thinking of them. I also looked at their prepaid foreign currency card yet again lots of hidden fees a couple of the other banks did not have. Dont know much about PSIS or credit unions
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