Westpac’s ‘powerful’, ‘moving’ and ‘brave’ ad about death wins Mumbrella’s July Ad of the Month
Mumbrella has revealed the winner of the July edition of Ad of the Month, with the industry choosing between Lynx, Australia Post, Westpac, Royal Far West and Kia.
Westpac’s “powerful” and “creative” ad about life and death has won Mumbrella’s July Ad of the Month.
Westpac’s ad which supports those grieving by highlighting the budding romance between a young man and women and chronicles the couples life together, scored 53% of the votes.
One voter said: “It brings to life an often avoided topic of what is an unavoidable life moment, using a well-executed balance of humour, romance and empathy. It shows a real human side to banks who are often perceived as devoid of emotion, and reminds us that they are there to help us through loss.”
“Death is such a difficult topic to discuss, let alone advertise. I think it’s a brave decision (especially at such a complicated time in financial services) and they nailed it by telling the story in such a beautiful, thoughtful and respectful way,” another voter commented.
Other voters said it was the only ad they had remembered seeing and labelled the ad as “the most beautiful ad on TV in a long time”.
This is the second time Westpac has won Mumbrella’s Ad of the Month after it took home Mumbrella’s April Ad of the Month for its “captivating”, “heartwarming” and “inspirational” ‘Help. It’s what Australians do’ ad.
Jenny Melhuish, Westpac’s group head of group brands, advertising & media, said in a statement to Mumbrella: “We are really proud of this work and feel it plays an important role in connecting us with Australians.
“We know losing a loved one can be one of the most difficult times in someone’s life, and that almost a third of our customers who lose a loved one will experience financial hardship within the first 12 months. In this work we wanted to capture the essence of support and let customers know they can reach out for help over the phone, online or by visiting us in branch.
“It has been such a privilege to see this work come together. What you see on screen is the result of a great cross functional team working together to talk to an important moment for Australians.”
Ben Welsh, chief creative officer at DDB, added: “This is a very Australian story about an immigrant coming to a small Australian town. But it’s as much about small Australian communities as it is about the main character himself.
“We’re really proud of this heartfelt piece of storytelling. It was a great script and was beautifully brought to life through the eyes of Director Christopher Riggert.”
- Agencies and brands involved in creating ads that first run during April are invited to put them forward for consideration. Please email abigail@mumbrella.com.au
I’m on the fence with this. I agree its a great ad in terms of storytelling… but I just don’t understand what they are selling or how they are tying themselves back to the brand. I watched this with my wife last night and she was equally confused as to what it all meant. How do Westpac play any role in the death of someone Jenny Melhuish explains it better above, but the ad doesn’t. I’d make a quick edit to the ending to say something like “a third of our customers who lose a loved one will experience financial hardship within the first 12 months – At such times we’re here to help” (get the copywriters to tidy it up)
This would be a far stronger call to action – and then an excellent ad
User ID not verified.
Its a beautiful piece of film making and brought a tear to my eye.
However it could not be more INappropriate for a bank to run something like that on the back of charging dead people for services and truly being difficult to deal with when someone dies. What possibly could have been the insight that built this ad? Where is their strategic agency saying- are you sure?
What is the CMO thinking?
One other thought…take the westpac logo off the end and you could run this awesome commercial for half a dozen categories from insurance, super, health etc…how does that work for westpac in differentiating it from competitors in their category.
An incredible film.
Crap bank strategy
User ID not verified.
don’t really see how this ad is brilliant, the bank was brave to do something that is pretty much unbranded but the execution just misses a beat or two trying to hard to be sentimental.
User ID not verified.
I agree – nice ad but it’s not Westpac or any Bank.
User ID not verified.
That was an ad for Westpac? When I saw it on TV, I had assumed it was NRMA. it was on in the background, and I never caught a glimpse of the end frame.
It’s a nice piece of film, but it’s not an ad. The average Australian is not going to come away with an understanding as to what Westpac means to them.
I agree with Mark Ritson’s recent op-ed – Australian marketing is shithouse.
User ID not verified.
Yes great add but if you are on a credit report agency you will not get a cent if you are dying and you don’t pay your mortgage they will drag to court to take your house and lev you to die on the street bastards look what they have done at the royal commission
User ID not verified.
Westpac has been running with depressing advertising for years. I don’t get it. Surely you want to make potential customers feel good? Or at least have a compelling reason to join you?
Too many advertising awards go to campaigns that might be creatively nice but will do absolutely nothing for the brand.
User ID not verified.
very touching add but took ages and lots of googling to find out what it was about,
User ID not verified.
Coming from a creative background it shames me to see beautiful storytelling with a weak connection to a brand at the end. You see time and time again great little snippets of brilliance in amongst someone screaming discounts at you. If you can tie an emotion to a brand and not feel the disconnect then it’s a great ad. Look to Lotto NZ for great ads. They have an amazing product to promote and everyone can relate to their “what if” line.
User ID not verified.
Lovely creative, strategy sucks.
User ID not verified.
Loved this add. But when i saw it was for a bank i felt conned that i gave emotional energy into a bank add.
The add agency did a good job. But I am annoyed it was a bank add.
Stop conning people into false belief that anyone should ever have any positive feelings about bloody banks.
User ID not verified.
Brilliant strategy – based on the insight (brainstormed in a marketing standup) that the one thing that all westpac customers have in common is death (except for crap service, but let’s park that). Westpac will own ‘death’ as an overarching brand theme. Brilliant.
User ID not verified.
A bank is NEVER there when you lose someone. I lost my dad and don’t remember the bank being there for our family. I don’t like the way they have crucified The seekers “Another You” either.
User ID not verified.
When I first saw the ad I thought it was about immigration, newly arrived man becoming part of his community, showing his selflessness and building a loving family to the point ant the saddest part of any relationship the community show the bereaved wife how her husband meant to them all. Then Westpac pops up and I think ” what did a bank have to do with any of that?” Cheap ploy by Westpac to play on human emotion.
User ID not verified.
Absolutely disgusting…with all the failures that were highlighted by the Australian Banking Commission the sheer ego of the bank to advertise is such a manner is absolutely disgusting.
“The revelation comes after Westpac admitted to falsely witnessing and pre-filling a form of acknowledgement, before allowing an elderly pensioner to become guarantor for her daughter’s loan, and then making a claim on the home after the daughter’s business failed.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/22/banking-royal-commission-westpac-executive-admits-flaws-in-loan-process
User ID not verified.
Can we please agree the abbreviation for ‘advertisement’ is ‘ad’ and not ‘add’?
User ID not verified.
This shouldn’t be called ad of the month. Ads exist for one reason only, and that is to function as advertising. And advertising needs to be measured to see whether it is good. Call it ‘Ad Creative of the Month’ and then this will have more credibility. Thoughts?
User ID not verified.
I loved the sentiment and storytelling, but when I realised it was from a bank – I thought it was a bit parasitic – the bank trying to get its hands on handling her estate and $$$ with the pretence of caring and supporting!
User ID not verified.
Funny because Mark has been working with the Westpac brand teams for the last 12 months
User ID not verified.
Very good made me cry
User ID not verified.
i’m just glad that cute girl Darcie Irwin-Simpson was in the ad her look is timeless with stunning eyes
User ID not verified.