How New Zealand’s Kiwibank boosted market share with unbranded TV

Locally-owned Kiwibank successfully grew market share vs New Zealand’s big banks by focusing on financial education and behaviour change via creating its own unbranded TV show.

New Zealand’s Kiwibank launched in 2002 as a local challenger brand to the existing foreign-owned banks in the country. Within 10 years, it became the fifth largest bank in the country. But around the time of its 10th birthday, the brand had outgrown its ‘challenger’ status and needed to pivot.

“We were now classified as a major bank…While being New Zealand-owned remained a cornerstone of our DNA, we needed to grow up a bit,” said Vesna Nixon, Head of Marketing Campaigns at Kiwibank, at Mumbrella’s Finance Marketing Summit in Sydney.

The bank looked to reframe its purpose and settled on...

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