New Zealanders had no idea how much they were wasting in unnecessary home loan interest.

To give them a wake up call, and make the amount feel very real, we collaborated with the Reserve Bank to access millions of dollars in real, shredded cash and put it in their hands.

$1,000 wads of shredded cash appeared in BNZ banks throughout New Zealand to jolt people into a conversation about the thousands they could be saving on their home loan by tailoring it with BNZ.

In Auckland, one of the world’s hottest property markets, people could see and hold (and weep over) $156,000 in shredded cash – the amount they could be saving on a typical $300,000 home loan if they switched to a BNZ tailored home loan.

BNZ’s mission is to help New Zealanders be good with money. It’s inherent in everything the bank does. The time was right to tackle the home loans issue, and help New Zealanders be better with the interest repayments on their biggest investment.

Key to the campaign was getting real shredded money into people’s hands so they could consider the reality of how much they could be wasting by paying unnecessary interest on their home loans, and to kickstart a conversation with BNZ staff.

Dimensional mail packs containing $1,000 in real shredded New Zealand bank notes were sent to home loan customers to generate enquiry via the call centre and instore.

Instore, and via activation, the campaign continued, with shredded cash on display in BNZ stores around New Zealand, provoking home loan conversations with bank staff - and national headlines.

Home loan enquiries to the BNZ call centre increased by 13%, growing the funnel of home loan prospects for BNZ. With people asking for help to “shred my home loan”, bank staff described the campaign as “one of the best conversation starters we’ve ever seen.”

Based on monthly rolling data, preference measures for BNZ increased by 11%.

Home lending increased by $600 million. The campaign was credited by BNZ CEO Anthony Healy as contributing to a lending turnaround for the bank.

Among non-BNZ customers, 30% more of them associated BNZ with ‘be good with money’ further building BNZ’s ongoing platform around their aim of helping New Zealanders be good with money.

And New Zealand homeowners are saving real money, thanks to a simple campaign that recycled worthless shredded cash.