Finance Marketing Summit: ‘Everything is income, they’re thinking about tomorrow’ – How NAB and TBWA nailed Gen Z’s hustle culture
By 2030, Gen Z is predicted to make up nearly 50% of consumer retail spending. With an unconventional relationship with money, compared to their predecessors, now is the time for financial service brands to learn their spending behaviours and capture their attention, according to NAB.
Speaking at the Mumbrella Finance Marketing Summit on Thursday, NAB’s head of group brand, Sue Brailsford, explained the bank’s ongoing relationship with the younger generation.
“It took us a little while to cotton on to exactly what was going on, but when we started looking underneath, we found that was our brand awareness was being driven by Gen Z customers,” she said.
“We found that by 2030, they’re predicted to make up about 48% of consumer retail spending, and be about a third of the workforce, so they’re obviously really important to all of us.”
She said a one-size-fits-all marketing approach to Gen Z is wrong, as they are a diverse, intersectional group of people.
And while they might not know it, Gen Z have been formed by a series of events in their lifetime – from the September 11 attacks, to the global financial crisis, social movements like Black Lives Matter, and more. And with the world so interconnected via social media now, Brailsford said these are all events they see up close and personal, and feel wholeheartedly.
“This series of events, plus the fact that they’re the first digital natives, means that for them, growing up has been a really different experience to everybody else,” she explained.
“And so as marketers, what this means is it’s often really hard to find them and connect with them, because they’re not all in the one place, and they don’t all believe in the same things. They appreciate the value of individuality and diverse voices, which really impacts their behaviours every day.”
Elly Bloom, general manager, marketing for the business and private bank at NAB, explained there are three key Gen Z behaviours the bank’s research found.
The first – Gen Z are loud.
There’s a desire and a propensity among Gen Z to talk about what they earn, how they spend their money. Bloom described it as “loud budgeting” – a notion of discussing personal nuances of their finances, or taking part in ‘no or low spending month’ trends.
The second – Gen Z are hustling.
“There’s this hustle to make more money through whatever creative means they can find,” Bloom said.
“So for example, we’ve seen that 46% of Gen Z have switched their savings accounts in the last 12 months to pursue a greater savings rate and hustle just that little bit.”
And the third – Gen Z are investing.
According to NAB’s research, 63% of Gen Z started investing during the Covid period. And since, they’ve been sticking to it and gaining benefits and rewards.
“Everything is income, they’re thinking about tomorrow and to the future, and they’re turning everything they can into potential income streams, and using that to invest.”
Bloom described these behaviours as powerful, and NAB have used these learnings to capture the young audience.
Brailsford and Bloom were joined on stage by TBWA\Melbourne’s co-head of planning, Eloise Liley, to show just how they did that.
In a recent campaign under NAB’s ongoing ‘Wrangle Your Money’ brand platform, TBWA leveraged the behaviours, and nailed the hustle culture and entrepreneurial spirit of Gen Z.
TBWA had Gen Z creatives work on the campaign across the whole process, to ensure it would truly resonate with the audience.
The agency learnt about Gen Z language, understood that it needed to reach the audience via untraditional advertising channels, and acknowledged that the campaign needed to legitimise the generation’s unconventional approach to money.
“Everyone is telling this generation what to do with their money. We don’t want to be one of those brands. We want to support them in the things they are already doing, because these behaviours are really fruitful in terms of how they’re getting ahead,” she explained.
“And this is such a good example of those three different conventions in one 30 second spot.”
To watch this session recording and more from the Mumbrella Finance Marketing Summit, head to Mumbrella Pro.
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