Our client was launching a new online share trading platform called nabtrade. The problem was that our competitor’s platform launched 15 years earlier, in 1997. They had a 15-year headstart. So, we turned their competitive advantage into a handicap. We drew attention to the fact that when it comes to online share trading, being old is a disadvantage. Just think of all the other terrible things that launched in the 1990s: rollerblades, MC Hammer, Beverly Hills 90210. Our campaign called upon people to “Don’t trade like it’s the 90s. Update to a platform built this century.” It drew on the worst the 1990s and all its then heroes had to offer.

Over 18,000 new accounts¬ – that’s 870 accounts per week (in a market in which the number of traders has fallen by 2.5% in the last 12 months (to 615,000 traders));

Cost per acquisition of $251;

86% of new accounts were directly attributable to launch marketing activities;

$500 million total footings across cash and High Interest Savings Accounts; and

An additional $240 million was added to NAB Group balances.

We launched our campaign in all the places you’d find frequent traders – the financial pages of the paper; in their workplaces both with strategically placed out of home and in building-elevator placements; on popular traders’ forums; in the country’s leading news portals with interactive ideas; in targeted direct mail; in PR; in cinema (alongside films with a financial slant); and also on television and pre-rolls online. In each of the channels, different 90s trader characters were introduced and then lampooned for our audience’s enjoyment.