When COVID-19 hit New Zealand, the country went into an immediate level 4 lockdown. No one, except for essential services, were allowed to leave their home. Which meant out-of-home advertising became effectively redundant. But while other other brands started to pull out, we ramped up our OOH buy, because there was still an important audience.

With New Zealanders stuck inside around the clock, people were starting to feel more and more disconnected. As a bank that stands for helping people stay one step ahead in every aspect of their life, we saw this as an opportunity to help those inside share gratitude and connect with their loved ones and essential services who were still out on the streets.

A community driven campaign, it encouraged our audience to not just engage with us on social, but social platforms allowed ASB to become conduit for New Zealanders all across the country to connect and engage with one another. Social was the perfect place to facilitate this, as a simple comment was a much smaller barrier for people to share their messages than any microsite.

ASB turned billboards all across the country into a social media space, letting those locked down inside write messages of support for those still outside to read. Via a simple comment on a Facebook post, or by using the #EssentialThanks, any New Zealander could write a message which would be up on a billboard in a matter of hours.

A simple template allowed us to plug in the user-generated messages along with a photo of the message sender. Then, working with our media partner and the message sender, we hyper-targeted each placement so it would run in a place we knew the specific person it was dedicated would see it - whether it was near their work, or on a route we knew they would take. Dynamic digital screens let us update the billboards to run in a matter of hours.

With over 1.2m impressions from a single social post, we had thousands of unique comments which we were able to turn into unique billboard placements across the country. Not only that but our campaign was broadcast on national news and ultimately helped lift ASB’s brand love score to the highest it’s ever been. But most importantly, it let us say thank you to the people who deserved it the most.