Analysis: ANZ rate rise pressures Barbara

David Walker
ANZ may have muted the effect of its latest rate rise by abolishing exit fees, but the ferocity of the banking debate still leaves its marketing strategy looking exposed.

ANZ's consumer marketing has centred on the claim that "we live in your world". Its flagship campaign this year has been the "Barbara from BankWorld" ads, created out of research on how customers perceive banks.

The ads feature the bank manager of your nightmares, portrayed by comedian Genevieve Morris in what is surely the role of her career. And though these things are notoriously hard to measure, the ads may even have helped the ANZ's bottom line: the bank's latest results show it gaining market share in both mortgages and deposits.

But the Barbara ads will only keep helping the ANZ if the bank can keep alive the perception that it is on the consumers' side and its competitors are not. That was doubtless an issue within ANZ and agency M&C Saatchi before the ads launched.

It's even more of an issue today. ANZ's lead over the CBA and NAB in satisfaction surveys has thinned. The welcome at ANZ branches - the punchline of some of those "Barbara" ads - can be much less warm than at their CBA equivalents, on which Ralph Norris really has wrought a transformation.

Critics have started making fun of the Barbara ads: advocacy group GetUp! launched an online video parody this month.

The ANZ rate rise adds to Barbara's troubles. News Ltd websites were yesterday running the headline "ANZ goes back to 'Bank World'". Channel 10 on Wednesday ran an excerpt from a "Barbara" ad which concludes with the line: "the most satisfied customers of the Big Four banks". Added Ten's reporter: "Not any more".

The Barbara ads of course also perform one other function. They brilliantly depict the sort of industry that needs to be seized by the throat and shaken - shaken up by, say, government.

In short, the ANZ is making the same criticisms as shadow treasurer Joe Hockey, the man whom Mike Smith has compared to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Banking Day yesterday asked ANZ media spokesman Stephen Ries why its CEO was defending the conduct of the banking industry while the ANZ's own advertising says that every bank (except the ANZ) is hopeless. Ries replied that the Barbara campaign "parodies the worst perceptions of the industry ... it parodies the banking industry on its worst days".

Customers might, however, be forgiven for thinking it parodies the industry every day.

Banking Day also asked whether the Barbara ads would continue. Ries emailed back:  "The Barbara campaign has resonated very well with our customers and been an effective way to communicate our key differences with our competitors. Like all our creative executions we will continue to review its ongoing use."

Genevieve Morris has crafted an Australian advertising icon to equal Paul Hogan's long-ago efforts for Winfield. But right now, she should not bank on too many more ANZ gigs.