Bankwest’s new brand platform is playful, relatable, offbeat

When Western Australian digital bank Bankwest needed to launch a new brand platform it turned to creative studio Bear Meets Eagle on Fire. True to its zany name, the agency conceptualised an integrated campaign called ‘Just Enough Bank', centred around the idea that the time one takes to bank should be proportionate with one’s other life tasks.

Now, this may not be sounding too novel so far. But this is where Ad Nut thinks the power of excellent copy and bang-on execution can have incredible impact. In the three films released by the bank, each features a person-next-door character who simply wants to do the weird things they love.

Ad Nut absolutely endorses that humans should spend the time they have not banked taking big bites from a whole round of brie, dwelling on that thing they said to a co-worker at that party, hating on Debbie, who keeps talking over them in the chat group, and attempting to speak to birds. The deadpan tone is made all the more hilarious with the voiceover’s AI inflexions.

The campaign also includes DOOH visuals that will roll out nationally over the coming weeks. These incorporate a new, colourful graphic identity for Bankwest that Ad Nut finds refreshing for a bank. Interestingly, instead of targeting a millennial or Gen Z audience the way most digital banks do, the new brand platform is actually aimed at a more grownup audience, or what Bankwest calls “the adult in the household who looks after the family banking”.

The first iteration of the campaign will run across cinema, broadcast, online video, OOH, digital and social.

Well, for a 130-year-old bank, Ad Nut tips Ad Nut’s hat for the brand having the pluck to be a little bit weird.

 

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Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.