Sector: Financial
Audience: Selected BNZ personal loan customers
Campaign: Direct mail pack
Purpose: Promote personal loans
Details: Mailing to existing Personal Loan customers who have paid at least 50% of their loan, offering them a top up.
Response: 32.5% of customers accepted the invitation to top-up their loan. 100% of respondents took up the offer.
BNZ wanted to increase the uptake of its personal loans. But awareness of the BNZ offering was low, competition from other banks was intense, and the widespread perception was that getting approval for a personal loan was difficult. Added to all that, the campaign budget was small - and the targets were high.
The Challenge
In a market cluttered with personal finance offerings, BNZ is in a head to head battle with many providers offering a way to buy now and pay later. Further, BNZ had not promoted its personal loans for several years - awareness was low. To succeed in such a competitive market it was decided to communicate solely to existing personal loan customers, in a highly targeted way. The challenge was to achieve real cut-through and motivate customers to top-up their BNZ loans.
The Thinking
- The widespread perception was that banks rarely approve personal finance. It was essential to counter this, so the campaign revolutionized the way BNZ customers could top-up their loans. They simply needed to sign, date and return a pre-populated response form.
- Unlike some personal loan providers, BNZ is seen as a credible, reliable source of finance, at competitive and controlled interest rates. For the campaign to succeed it was essential to leverage off this brand credibility.
- Because of the small budget, the decision was made to send just one mailing. The target was 10% uptake of the offer to top-up a personal loan.
- Another target was to increase customer satisfaction and retention by making the process so easy.
- Outstanding letterbox cut-through was achieved through the idea of sending customers an 'entry' to an imaginary extreme triathlon. As well as being compelling, the creative supported the message that customers were all set to fund their goals, however extreme.
The Results
- The campaign outperformed all targets including total revenue, despite the mailing base being greatly reduced at the last minute.
- The response rate was 32.5%, over three times the forecast 10% response rate.
- The customers who took up the offer tended to be those eligible for a larger loan amount, which added to the campaign success.
- The conversion rate of responses to sales was 100%.
"There are dozens of banks and finance companies offering personal loans. Standing above the crowd meant more than sending customers a flashy mailing - we had to drill down and make sure the actual process was easy for the customer and the Bank."
Jilly Lind-Thomas, Marketing Manager - Cards and Consumer Finance, Bank of New Zealand.
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