Case studies ‘best of’ 2014 These case studies represent the winning and highly commended entries from the 2014 PRINZ Awards – celebrating 40 years! Corporate Public Relations Not for Profit Public Relations Peter Parussini and the ANZ Corporate Affairs Team Sharon Walls “Banking on the new ANZ” – the post ANZ and The Mercy Ships National Bank merger communications strategy and plan Mercy by Moonlight Courtney Bennett, Telecom New Zealand Internal Communications Lee Hales and Georgia Moselen-Sloog, Whitaker Group Amanda Schaake, for Fonterra Givealittle by the Telecom Foundation, the Growth of Zero Fees Connecting employees to mission and purpose: Fundraising in New Zealand Turning boring into bring it on! Warren Rosser, Susan Rockliffe and Lauren Lau Paul Dryden Tertiary Award Westpac NZ Ltd Anna Johnstone, Caroline Leeming, Zureena Habib, Bringing our people together Alexandra Harman and Nina Magan AUT University – Outside the Square Auckland’s Most Noteworthy Teacher Issues, Crisis & Emergency Management Megan Wiltshire and Emily Davies Bank of New Zealand Special Event or Project Shake, rattle and roll: Responding to the 2013 Central Crystal Beavis North Island earthquakes Strategic Lighting Partners Ltd Turning the spotlight onto LED road lighting: Road Lighting 2014, 11–12 March, Auckland Limited Budget Public Relations Suzanne McNamara Deepti Bhargava, Paul Weeks, Bev Armstrong, Convergence Darren Horsman, Claire McCarthy and Elizabeth Phillips Splore’s sustainability message changes audience behaviour Unitec Institute of Technology Celebrating Pride Marketing Communication – Integrated Sustained Public Relations Ross Henderson, Kathryn Fitzpatrick, Karen Jones and Campbell Moore John MacDonald, Durning Public Relations New Zealand Police Stacey Doornenbal and Jayne Austin, University of Canterbury Safer Speed Summer UC Futures Alisha Thomas, Angela Spain and Georgia Boyce Annemarie Mora, Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure FCB PR and Activation Rebuild Team and Norma Kloosterman, Fulton Hogan Sony: Message in a bottle Setting a new benchmark for post-disaster recovery communication Kristie Penwarden Professional Public Relations NZ Oliver Roberts, John Evans and Carol Hayward The Fiji Airways mid-air wedding campaign Auckland Council Shaping Auckland’s future – enhanced engagement on the Auckland Unitary Plan Marketing Communication – Public Relations Dan Walraven, Dan Ormond and Sam Halstead Joanna James, Natasha Gillooly and Strahan Wallis Ideas Shop Porter Novelli NZ Going Digital Tui Plumbers Go Global Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year Award Erin Roberts McDonald’s Restaurants New Zealand Ltd Cindy Bangs NZ Transport Agency Corporate Public Relations Corporate Public Relations Peter Parussini and the ANZ Corporate Affairs Team “Banking on the new ANZ” – the post ANZ and The National Bank merger communications strategy and plan In 2012 the ANZ and The National Bank came together in one of New Zealand’s biggest brand merger projects, an initiative that won local and international awards and plaudits. But the long term success of the new ANZ will be determined by what happens in the aftermath of the amalgamation. This entry looks at the strategy and plan implemented by ANZ Bank New Zealand’s Corporate Affairs team to lock in the gains made by the successful merger in the period immediately after the change. Background Preliminary research The communications programme for the merger of The The pre-merger communications campaign paid off with National Bank and ANZ brands, which won the 2013 the new brand moving from fifth to third in favourability PRINZ Corporate Public Relations and Supreme Awards, for all banks shortly after the change. But the numbers was overwhelming successful. were polarised – most either liked the new ANZ or didn’t, While the merger was successful there was still a risk with the dislikes the biggest of all the bank brands. the brand might not live up to its promise and that staff, The bank’s ‘soft’ measures around its role in communities, customers, stakeholders and the public would gradually social responsibility, acting with integrity, being a good come to dislike it. Pre-merger research indicated that corporate citizen and supporting the New Zealand more than 30% of The National Bank customers would economy were not strong. reluctantly move to the new ANZ and make a judgment Improving the performance in these ‘soft’ measures over time. would be critical to locking in the change. The news media would also be looking for any sign that This research strongly informed the strategy and plan. the merger hadn’t worked. If their suspicions were proved they would label it a failure, creating a downward spiral of bad publicity. Objectives The objectives were: One of the other threats likely to be faced was unrelated bad news infecting the new image. » help limit any loss of customers; A follow-up strategy and plan was, therefore, needed » help lock in any customers who have doubts about so stakeholders could believe they could bank on the the changes; and new ANZ. » critical to all this, keep staff engaged. 4 Corporate Public Relations Judges’ comment: An extremely competent, professional communications strategy, very professionally executed by a well-led team. The judges liked the use of research and the outcome evaluation measures were impressive. UMR Research’s quantitative nationwide 3. The successful merger has led the credit to frontline staff in particular. survey of New Zealanders and the annual to...<<insert detail>> A powerful video was created to ANZ Group staff engagement survey, ‘My 4. Only about 2000 customers out of communicate this. Voice’ were the measures. 1.7 million left, they say, as a result of 3. Re-ignite the ANZ Staff Foundation to 1. Paint the image that the merger had the merger. help drive engagement gone incredibly well, as measured by ANZ has a payroll giving programme favourability ratings. Targets were set to: Strategy which sees staff donating each pay day – raise favourables from 50% to > 52% » Define for stakeholders what the measure to a foundation. These donations are – reduce unfavourable from 29% of success is – home loan market share matched dollar for dollar by ANZ. Twice to < 27% and profitability – and point them out as a year donations are made to charities evidence that the merger continues to be around the country that have been 2. Improve the new ANZ’s ‘soft’ measures. nominated by staff. This Foundation was Targets were set to: successful and has set the company up for even greater success. In parallel with re-ignited for the purposes of further – raise community awareness from this, be upfront with a figure for those engaging with staff. An internal campaign 29% to > 31% who defected and, importantly, put this in of videos, personalised online stories – raise socially responsible agrees from context with the 1.7m who stayed. and staff meetings was run that saw membership rise from 13% to 21%. 40% to > 42% » Don’t move on too quickly from the – raise acts with integrity agrees from merger – use it as a reference point at 4. Create an internal campaign that unites 53% to > 55% every opportunity to say that it is the the whole bank – raise good corporate citizen agrees reason things are successful. We took a relatively obscure internal start from 42% to > 44% » Make the leadership team more visible, of the year campaign run by the Retail division and turned it into a bank-wide – raise supports NZ economy agrees from talking in a confident, informal and fun initiative. ‘Paint New Zealand Blue’ saw 31% to > 33% tone – wherever possible – about the future, and announcing wins and good all staff involved in online quizzes to help 3. Help ensure the high staff engagement news as evidence of the success. them get to know other business units score achieved leading up to the change and how they help our customers, spend » As with the build up to the merger, keep a (74%) did not drop. time with another team, get involved in strong focus on staff engagement as they a customer or community activity and are the key to conveying an atmosphere Audiences refer a customer to another team. Videos, of confidence and success to customers online stories and competitions were 1. Staff – 8000 nationwide, with about 3000 and other stakeholders. customer-facing. created to support this. » Show a ‘soft’ side to the new ANZ and 5. Create CEO online chats that enable a 2. Customers – 1.7 million New Zealanders find examples that show a new more more intimate conversation with staff have a financial relationship with the contemporary image. bank, with about half being former Using software called ‘Cover It Live’ we » Try to position any bad news during the National Bank customers. created regular CEO online chats with year as an industry – rather than new staff. These have become so popular that 3. Customer influencers – industry ANZ – issue. associations, mortgage and insurance as many as a third of staff have been logged into the hour long conversations. brokers, lawyers, real estate agents and Implementation / tactics others who recommend ANZ. 6. Use video messages for more engagement 1. Create wins and publicise them internally 4. News media – business media and and personality and externally commentators. CEO and MD video messages have been We deliberately applied for a range of 5. Minister of Finance, Minister of used extensively since the merger as national and international awards – Commerce, Opposition Finance they are far more engaging. We have communications, marketing, legal, HR, spokesperson, members of Parliament’s also deliberately used humour, often self IT, finance and management – because finance and expenditure select committee. deprecating, and non-corporate style winning or doing well helped legitimise communications to better reflect the new the merger. It also meant we could ANZ internally. Messages remind audiences of the success of the 7. Reinforce key messages through major merger even if, as was mostly the case 1.