Seinfeld gives building society a Greater profile

The Greater Building Society today announced that its new marketing campaign starring Jerry Seinfeld has dramatically lifted its brand profile and that, in its area of operations, awareness of its campaign is higher than those of the major banks.

Head of marketing John Dwyer said the Greater had commissioned The Financial Research Company to measure any changes in brand awareness in existing markets, and to gauge people’s level of recall of the new campaign.

Dwyer said that 60% of people surveyed were aware of the campaign andthat 49% linked the campaign to the Greater. He said that this level ofrecall is an amazing result.

“The research company said to us that 20% would have been a good resultand that 49% was a State of Origin type result,” says Dwyer.  

The research also showed that people were more aware of the Greater’snew campaign than the Commonwealth Bank’s campaign. Prior to theSeinfeld campaign, the Greater was ranked second, behind theCommonwealth, in the list of financial institutions with advertising ofwhich people said they were most aware.

In terms of brand awareness, the number of respondents who said thatthey knew something about the Greater Building Society after thecampaign launched was 13% higher than it was before the new campaign.

“Increases in brand awareness can take years to achieve but thiscampaign has delivered that result for us virtually overnight,” he said.

Two groups of more than 1000 people living in the Greater’s area ofoperations (regional NSW and Queensland’s Gold Coast) were surveyedonline, the first group a month before the campaign launch and thesecond group seven days after the launch.

Dwyer said the campaign had attracted national and internationalattention in the media and online before a commercial went to air: “The Greater’s Youtube channel was the 25th most watched channel inAustralia in the days following the launch – unheard of numbers for acorporate posting. This is a strategic, well researched campaign from one of Australia’slargest building societies to position itself as a viable alternativeto the major banks.”

The commercials starring Jerry Seinfeld and Greater customers have beenrunning since July 12 in regional NSW and on the Queensland Gold Coast.

View the 60 second ‘Maximum’ launch commercial plus the tactical ‘Sucks’ spot, the ‘Love’ spot and ‘Home Loans’ spot.