Spanning different age groups and demographics, 1 in 6 Australians struggle with credit card debt. Part of the problem is that finance isn’t fun, so people aren’t interested in learning more. To make matters worse, banking products can be complicated. We needed to talk about SmartPlan in a simple, entertaining and distinctly un-bank-y way. The campaign had to target credit card users who carry debt from month to month, not a traditional demographic, but a spending mindset.

Each spot in the campaign starts with one long, scary sentence that then gets split into three parts. Splitting the sentences up changes their meaning completely and takes them from horrifying to harmless, just like breaking up one big payment with Westpac’s SmartPlan.

The read of each sentence and the SFX are the same in both the scary and non-scary sections. The SFX are layered with spooky ambience in the first, scary read, to dial up the frightening images the words conjure up. Simply by splitting up the words and stripping back the scary ambience, the meaning of the sentence completely changes the second time you hear it.