NatWest – Avo Aaron

Objective:

UK national bank NatWest aimed to increase consideration as a mortgage provider amongst with twenty and thirty something young professionals when the time to buy a house comes for them. Through promoting their Financial Health Check product in digital and social channels, NatWest wanted to start the conversation that could end with home ownership. However, home ownership and the wider economy made the prospect of a mortgage increasingly unlikely for many. In the 2018 world of shifting economic outlook and doubt, how can a bank lay the groundwork to recruit new home buyers, when many don’t know if they’ll ever experience it?

Insight:

Society gets twenty something young professionals all wrong – they are the financial best of us, not the worst. The world says they want ‘experiences’ not ‘goods’, that they’d rather Airbnb than stay at the Hilton. That their money is being flitted away on trips and Avocado on toast, instead of being saved. However, the reality is that young professionals are some of the most responsible of us with money. They save, in the face of shifting goal posts and increasing challenges. They adapt their spending habits to enjoy what they can in their own way and enjoy the treats we all do – but even if they never touched an avocado, it would take decades to achieve home ownership on their own.

Approach: 

Build a rapport with the UK’s young professionals by turning the unfair stereotypes and assumptions into points of shared conversation. Widely acknowledge their reality and champion what they do financially – so NatWest and their Financial Health Check are seen as a supporter in the face of increasing difficulty. Don’t offer mortgages, offer support.

Idea:

Avo Aaron, an avocado spokesman, designed by the talented artists at Aardman, who makes the avocado toast myth into what it is – a joke. Aaron will tell the truth about millennial spending and try to set the financial score right, while highlighting that NatWest can support even further.

Results:

Avo Aaron launched in social media and digital video channels – creating a significant uplift in search association between NatWest and mortgages during and post the campaign period, as well as greater brand lift amongst exposed audiences towards NatWest and, most importantly, greater Financial Health Check signups.

// Agency: VaynerMedia EMEA

// Role: Head of Strategy