Combining ANZ Bank’s national footprint with the authority of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the ANZ ‘Signs of Love’ sponsorship activation was uniquely positioned to advocate for greater inclusion across Australia.

Transforming road-signs right across the country into fabulous beacons for inclusion, this idea created a bespoke Mardi Gras experience in far flung locations around the country for LGBTIQ+ individuals isolated from, or unable to attend, the festival.

With the integration of Google Street View and creation of branded Oxford Street giphy stickers, ANZ took the campaign beyond a physical activation through to online and social touch points.

As principal partner of Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, ANZ Bank has firmly established itself as a strong supporter of the LGBTIQ+ community through its annual Mardi Gras activations.

In 2018, Sydney Mardi Gras celebrated Australia’s achievement of marriage equality and 40 years of LGBTIQ+ rights in Australia.

Come 2019, sitting inside the Sydney Mardi Gras ‘pride-bubble’ (as we termed it), you could be forgiven for thinking the ‘job was done’ for LGBTIQ+ equality and there was nought left to do but embrace the celebration.

But that would have been naive.

Our campaign objective was to reinforce ANZ’s support for diversity and inclusion and broaden awareness for ANZ’s sponsorship of Mardi Gras.

Acknowledging that we’d come a long way in regards to LGBTIQ+ rights, our brief was to focus on ‘the more to be done’.

Discovering Oxford Street in Sydney (the parade-route) was one of 123 Oxford Streets around Australia, our idea was to spread a little inclusion beyond Sydney to LGBTIQ+ individuals living away from the festival’s ‘pride-bubble’ - many of whom felt isolated and vulnerable.

‘Signs of Love’ saw the ambitious, overnight metamorphosis of ‘other’ Oxford Streets into beacons of pride and inclusion.

In country towns across Australia, Oxford Street signs were transformed into shimmering, 3D sculptures, paying homage to familiar LGBTIQ+ icons, including:

‘We’re Not in Sydney Toto’ - an iconic rainbow.

‘Eternal Flame’- celebrating marriage equality.

‘Coming-Out’, - a unicorn ‘coming out’ in the bush.

“Pink FlaminGo-Go’ - loved-up flamingo sailors.

‘Love-is-Love’ - a lovestruck heart.

‘‘I’m Spinning Around’ - tribute to gay icon Kylie Minogue’s song by the same name.

‘Turn the Party’ - a glittering winged stiletto.

And a giant 123-sign Sydney sculpture pointing towards every other Oxford Street.

ANZ’s community sponsorship strategy is deeply rooted in inclusion. If ANZ is to live up to its organisational purpose ‘to help individuals and communities thrive’, then at a community level, it’s essential, everyone be shown equal respect, no matter their gender, race, sexuality or ability.

To focus our idea, we started with audience research to understand ‘what more there was to be done’ for LGBTIQ+ rights, specifically; what issue required ANZ’s rally for an equal future.

Interviewing key members of the community, we heard story after story of the isolation and vulnerability felt “growing up gay in the bush”. Exploring this in quantitative, we found 84% of LGBTIQ+ felt there were parts of Australia where it was unsafe to be themselves.

And so we had our rally

To maximise impact (and budget), we installed a hero sign in each state.

A reconnaissance of 123 towns simply wasn’t feasible, so we turned to Google street-view - giving us another idea. What if Google captured new footage for our signs to live-on indefinitely?

In an agency world-first, Google agreed - loaning us their cameras, stitching-in new footage and providing live 360-viewing access for all the world to see.

Multiple installation and production teams were dispersed far-and-wide for a simultaneous overnight installation.

We then hosted multiple regional media launches to unveil each sign to their local community, including the reveal of a four-tonnes, 6-metre ‘Sign of Love’ at Sydney’s Bondi Beach pointing to all 123 Oxford Streets.

On the same morning, we put out a social video to share the story.

And as a final touch, we created ANZ branded Giphy stickers inviting Oxford Streets the world-over to join-in.

The story of Auntie Cece, from the country-town of Mittagong is our proudest result. Our idea was designed to reach LGBTIQ+ individuals isolated from the inclusion of Sydney’s Oxford Street. To let them know it was okay to be gay, or (in Auntie Cece’s case), transgender.

When Mittagong’s sign was vandalised, Cece took to social media to speak out against the hateful act, publicly revealing she was transgender. Sadly, the sign was later stolen and two others vandalised - reinforcing the need for them in the first place.

At a macro level:

-The campaign delivered 239 million impressions

-with 396 media hits across TV, Press, Radio and Online.

-Received 99% positive sentiment,

-Grew the awareness of ANZ’s Mardi Gras sponsorship efforts outside of Sydney by 78%

-And successfully amplified ANZ’s inclusive reputation, increasing by 25% the belief that ANZ is a supporter of diversity and inclusion.