Cannes Lions PR Grand Prix 2011

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Australia took home the Grand Prix for PR at Cannes yesterday for "Break Up" campaign for National Australia Bank.

Australians have always believed their 4 biggest banks, Commonwealth, Westpac, ANZ and National Australia Bank (NAB) work together fixing fees and eliminating competition. The reality however is the opposite. NAB had in fact spent 2 years making dramatic changes abolishing fees and lowering interest rates, all to be considered fairer and more competitive by customers. But due to this perception of being 'together', people had almost refused to notice. Instead of fighting this perception of the banks being 'together', we instead decided to embrace it by letting the public witness NAB break up with the other banks. Every moment of the break up had to help people believe NAB had really changed. Thus, it couldn’t work through conventional advertising, but instead had to come to life in a channel people already readily believed: the news. In a single day the public’s perception of NAB was transformed. By dominating the Australian news, NAB’s changes were given an immediate credibility advertising alone simply could not deliver. People now see the bank as not only different, more fair and competitive, but also much more relatable and human. The break up generated $5 million of earned PR media in a single day.

Credits:
Chairman: James McGrath
ECD: Ant Keogh
Creatives: Juliain Schreiber, Tom Martin, Rohan Lancaster, Darren Pitt
Executive Agency Producer: Sonia Von Bibra
Print Agency Producer: Sharon Adams
Account Management Team: Simon Lamplough, Tim McColl Jones, Kelly Richardson, Kate McCarthy, Tanya Garma
Planning & Insights Director: Paul Rees Jones
Director: The Glue Society
DOP/Cinematographer: Danny Ruhlmann plus 63 x field DP's
Revolver Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie of Revolver
Head of Projects, Line Producer: Josh Mullens, Ian Iveson of Will O'Rourke
Sound Engineer/Design: Paul Le Couteur (Flagstaff) Paul Taylor/Lukas Farry (Sound Reservoir)
Post Production Company: The Editors/ Frame Set & Match
Music Production Company: Level Two Music :Karl Richter
Flame Artist: Heather Galvin & Phil Stuart-Jones
Casting: Peta Einberg casting
Director Digital Innovation: Eaon Pritchard
Promotion: Traffik: Paul Campbell