ANZ, 'official bank' of the Rugby World Cup, says the group's biggest ever sponsorship commitment has helped boost customer numbers

By Gareth Vaughan

Fresh from completing the biggest sponsorship gig in the ANZ Banking Group's history, ANZ New Zealand maintains growth in customer numbers and an improvement in how ANZ is seen by potential customers, can be linked directly to its role as an official sponsor of the Rugby World Cup.

Mike Cunnington, ANZ NZ's head of marketing, told interest.co.nz that although the group wouldn't disclose how much sponsoring the World Cup had cost, it was the biggest sponsorship deal the ANZ Banking Group had ever undertaken.

ANZ's sponsorship, as "official bank", of the tournament was announced in early May last year making it about an 18 month marketing event for the bank in total, Cunnington said. He said ANZ had been "really happy" with its growth in customer numbers and improvement in the ANZ brand metrics over about the last nine months.

Although this could not be definitively linked to the World Cup sponsorship, Cunnington said: "We've seen faster growth in ANZ customer numbers over the last nine months than we've seen for many years and brand consideration - how many people are likely to consider ANZ when they next go shopping for a financial product - that has been going in the right way at a faster rate over the last nine to 12 months as well."

"You can never definitively say, absolutely say, total cause and effect (sponsoring the rugby helped attract customers), but the things line up so well that it's statistically valid," he added.

Asked for specific figures on growth in ANZ customer numbers and evidence of improving perceptions of ANZ, both Cunnington and a bank spokeswoman said this was internal, commercially sensitive information they couldn't release.  The group releases its annual financial results on November 3.

Cunnington said ANZ's move to sponsor the tournament, won dramatically in Sunday night's final by the All Blacks, was the brainchild of Sue McGregor, ANZ New Zealand head of sponsorship.

"It's probably the biggest single thing that's going to happen in New Zealand for the next 10 years in terms of emotional engagement so we felt it was worth a big call and it was worth a big push to do it properly," Cunnington said.

'Good fit with super regional strategy'

He said sponsoring the tournament fitted well with the ANZ group's "super regional strategy" given its global nature. Launched by ANZ group CEO Mike Smith, a former HSBC executive in October 2008, this strategy organised the group around three geographies – Australia, New Zealand (headed by NZ CEO David Hisco) and Asia Pacific, and aimed to reduce the management layers between Smith and customers' serving staff from up to 12 to about seven.

At the time Smith said that after 15 years of economic growth the bank was heading into a "very different" environment with the new structure putting ANZ into good shape to take advantage of this new reality and be more customer focused. ANZ recently brought its first global brand campaign to New Zealand, which features Aussie actor Simon Baker in character as Patrick Jane from television show The Mentalist.

Meanwhile, Nielsen AIS figures show ANZ NZ significantly increased advertising spending through its ANZ brand in the first eight months of the year as it reined in advertising spend on the sister National Bank brand. ANZ NZ spent NZ$17.7 million on advertising the ANZ brand in the eight months to August 31, 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.

This comes as the ANZ group reviews its continued use of the National Bank brand, with a decision possible by year's end. 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.

Cunnington said ANZ hosted about 3,000 local business leaders at World Cup events and brought in several hundred from Asia and Australia.

"We've been able to give something back to core customers and also it has been a chance to talk to new customers and a chance to showcase New Zealand to customers from Asia and Australia," he said.

Being a full fledged sponsor beat just entertaining customers in corporate boxes because ANZ got prime spots in the stadiums, key involvement, high profile speakers like ex-All Blacks captain David Kirk at its events, and "the ability to put on a truly memorable experience rather than just taking people to the footy," said Cunnington.

"In terms of the way you can use it, we believe we have ticked all the boxes."

Hisco has given all the bank's staff a day off following the World Cup, which they can take any time before the end of January.

*Disclosure: Gareth Vaughan attended the World Cup opening ceremony and All Blacks versus Tonga match as a guest of ANZ.

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