How the combination of Print, Native Digital & Talk Radio has started a conversation to educate Australians about the plight of financial abuse.
Challenge
In late 2019, Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA) launched a campaign with Nine that aimed to start a conversation to educate Australians about the plight of financial abuse. The “Next Chapter” campaign was created to spotlight the signs of financial abuse and outlay a path to long-term recovery and financial stability for survivors.
CBA wanted to own the conversation and educate Australians about the plight of financial abuse, whilst supporting specialist teams to help victims amid warnings that women can be left with huge debts after an abusive relationship.
The Cross-Platform Solution
The high-impact wrap execution in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age played on the power of simplicity, featuring the phrase “Hiding in Plain Sight”.
The print execution stood as a statement piece, in black and white, designed to imply that financial abuse is often hidden, but drawing attention to just how common it is too.
The “Hiding in Plain Sight” statement was followed by “Sarah’s story” on the inside two pages, which told two very different stories while highlighting the often-missed signs of financial abuse. On the back cover we revealed the purpose of this execution – to make the invisible topic of financial abuse visible. Here we aligned the messaging of “Hiding in Plain Sight” with the “Next Chapter” initiative highlighting what CBA is doing to help survivors of financial abuse.
The Sydney Morning Herald and our sister paper The Age have been strong voices on all forms of domestic abuse. We have reported repeatedly on cases that highlight how financial control over a partner is particularly subversive and the devastating impact it has on both victims and the community more broadly. It's an issue that continues to require strong attention and we are committed to doing that. It's commendable that banks, notably CBA, are focused on supporting the victims of this abuse. With CBA's support, we would welcome the chance to put this issue under an even greater spotlight, amplifying key messages of awareness, education and support across the unmatched assets of Nine.
- Lisa Davies, Editor - The Sydney Morning Herald
40% of the adult population in Australia have experienced or know someone who has experienced financial abuse. (Source: You Gov)
A series of strip ads highlighting key data around financial abuse, such as “Nearly 4 in 5 Australians agree that financial abuse is a widespread problem”, ran on following days, keeping the topic at the top of the agenda in the weekly news cycle.
Flip covers and wraps in the Weekend NIMS provided a deep-dive into stories of survivors and inspiration to continue the education process – capitalising on the additional down time and longer read you can expect from Good Weekend and Sunday Life.
Impactful homepage takeovers
The campaign was extended into digital through immersive native articles on 9Honey that included articles titled “One woman’s story of bouncing back from financial abuse”, which attracted huge traffic numbers. Besides driving awareness and educating the Nine audience on the topic, the creative also brought CommBank’s support service availability to the forefront, a key metric for campaign success.
Over the course of six months, awareness amongst the Nine audience increased by 21%. The success of the campaign forged an ongoing partnership with CommBank and Nine, fostering incredible commercial growth for branded content campaigns.
Unforgettable radio execution
In the second phase of “Hiding in Plain Sight”, we’re now using the power of talk radio to enable a two-way conversation and really get people talking.
CBA took advantage of our Brand Awareness Maximiser (BAM) which allowed CBA to take over the network and drive home the message aligned to International Women’s Day. Aligning their campaign with Nine’s radio assets meant that the topic of financial abuse was at the top of the agenda in the weekly news cycle.