TBWA New Zealand

Client: ANZ BANK
Product: Healthy Homes
Title: Mr Humfreez
Media: Integrated
Country: New Zealand
Date Of Campaign: August 2019

Background: Over the last 200 years that banks have lent money to people to buy houses, there’s been a surprising lack of innovation. It’s the same for how mortgages are marketed. This is a story of how an innovation, with personal and societal benefits, completely transformed how New Zealand’s largest bank sold home loans – their biggest and most important category. With Healthy Home Loans, we created a mortgage product that didn’t just get Kiwis into homes, but got them into warm, dry, healthy ones.We turned the ANZ Healthy Homes Package into the emotional heart of our entire home loans proposition. In a competitive home loans market that was in a rate-race to the bottom, we focused on adding value to homes, not taking value away from a home loan. We aimed to show Kiwis the health of the home in a way that made them care about this issue that affects a shocking 50% of all New Zealand homes. We discovered the gatekeepers to a healthy home are young mums, as children are the ones most affected by damp, cold homes. Our solution was aimed at educating children and young families. We gave children a voice in our communication, used the family home as the context for our message, and empowered both teachers and children through a pilot learning module in a primary school.

Idea: To make Kiwis households care about this issue, we invented Mr Humfreez by ANZ - a world-first innovation that detects home health- designed to be read and understood by the children most affected by this crisis. The healthy homes device was made in way that is healthy for people and the planet. Instead of using plastics and rare earth metals, the technology was created by programming one of earth’s most abundant materials - wood. Calibrated to World Health Organisation standards for healthy home, the device that shows you when your home is too damp, or too cold. His hygroscopic horns uncurl when humidity is over 65%, and thermochromic ink on his face turns blue below 18ºC. A smart, sustainable and unmistakably Kiwi icon of home health, Mr Humfreez forms the centrepiece of ANZ’s Healthy Homes initiative.

Results: Mr Humfreez helped turn long-term decline into market share growth for ANZ in Home Loans.The campaign led to a revenue return of $30.80 for every dollar spent on media – a 24.5% increase on all previous home loan advertising.It has also helped reverse declines in corporate reputation and brand consideration.3X more New Zealanders now link ANZ with ‘warmer, more efficient homes’.Mr Humfreez drove 5X more search volume than any other ANZ campaign. Government agencies and NGOs have reached out to seek potential partnership opportunities - including Housing NZ, EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority), The Asthma & Respiratory Foundation and Habitat for Humanity.Mass production is underway in phase 2 due to global demand.Mr Humfreez is being trialled as a teaching tool to become part of the NZ school curriculum, helping future generations learn about the importance of a warm, dry home.