Aussie caps off 18 months of company reinvestment with $25m brand marketing campaign

Aussie Home Loans has taken the wrappers its biggest marketing activity yet, shaking up its brand strategy and bringing back its iconic brand line ‘We’ll save you’ as part of a $25 million multi-platform campaign.

The work comes after 18 months of activity to shape the business and marketing approach, from technology investment and an in-house contact centre, to new team structures and physical stores.

Aimed at strengthening the mortgage broking brand’s market position, the $25 million campaign will roll out over the next 18 months and includes a new-look website, digital advertising as well as activity across YouTube, Facebook and social media, plus new TV commercials and in-store marketing. The company said the content positions mortgage brokers at the front and centre of the brand and is designed to help demystify the role they play in helping customers choose a home loan.

The activity has been created in partnership with newly appointed agency partner, Special Group. According to Aussie, it’s been six months in the making and has seen a number of the group’s agency teams working closely with its media and technology partners.

Aussie CEO, James Symond, said the new campaign is about showing how Aussie’s 1000-strong broker network empowers its staff to provide strong customer experiences and helps consumers navigate thousands of home loan products. He noted more than 50 per cent of home loans nationally are facilitated by mortgage brokers.

“Nearly 25 years ago, John Symond brought a face to a faceless industry and revolutionised the Australian home loan market,” he said. “This new campaign drives forward what he and Aussie’s team have built together, Australia’s largest and most successful mortgage broking brand.

“Just as every one of our brokers is at the heart of a great customer experience, they are also at the heart of the new campaign.”

Symond said he was also excited to be bringing back the catchline ‘We’ll save you’, claiming it continued to reflect the needs of modern-day customers.

“It not only resonates with consumers who are shopping around for a better deal, but those who understand that being looked after by a professional, local home loan expert can help them save not just money, but help them avoid stress, wasted time and uncertainty,” he said.

On top of the media spend, Aussie has been giving its business an overhaul over the last 18 months, expanding its product range, bringing its customer contact centre in-house, upgrading its training programs and technology and moving to new headquarters. It’s also struck up a new charity alliance with OzHarvest.

It also appointed Richard Burns in early 2015 as its first GM overseeing customer experience, marketing and technology divisions, a decision made in order to better align these functions to the needs of both customers and mortgage brokers.

Within his first six months, Burns had introduced a new customer engagement team to sit alongside brand and acquisition, as well as sponsored new project work to rebuild the processes and algorithms used by Aussie to best determine a match between a customer and one of the company’s brokers. This is based on a raft of data sets, including customer, demographic, Web history, loan purpose and social intelligence.

At the same time, Aussie has continued to expand its physical presence, and Symond pointed out the group now has more than 200 stores in metro and regional areas.

“Literally every part of Aussie has been enhanced over the past 18 months,” Symond added.

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu