Concept: Recognition and Reward
As one of Australia’s big four banks, Westpac is on a mission to lead the pack in digital first banking. To achieve this, we need a long-term strategy to attract the best and brightest in the tech world. So, creating and sharing a unique Tech EVP has become a priority.
In this highly competitive market, we need a long running EVP awareness campaign that would not only overcome any prejudices the tech community might have with banking but also present our bank as the best choice for an exciting and rewarding fintech career now and into the future. A video campaign on social media was clearly the most effective way to share this message.
We know that one of the main concerns for tech professionals joining a bank is that they would become a secondary backroom component in a finance-based organisation. So, our video campaign needed to prove that our tech professionals are valued as a major force in transforming our bank. We needed to clearly and simply illustrate how we provide our tech professionals with the investment, support and cutting-edge tools to accomplish this major feat.
Our concept was “Recognition and Reward”.
Firstly, to recognise their immense value as individuals and secondly call out the specific ways we are supporting their unique needs with real proof points.
So, we conducted an extensive discovery program amongst our tech cohorts to learn which of the many programs, tools and benefits we had put in place most resonated.
During our discovery we concluded that to effectively show our understanding of our various cohorts’ values and needs we should address two of our major cohorts – data and cyber security – separately, with an additional overarching tech EVP messaging.
So, we created an engaging awareness campaign of 3 long form videos for each of our three cohorts with our concept of “Recognition and Reward”.
Video 1
Recognition: Our data experts make everything smarter
Reward: So, we’re creating a smarter working environment for them
Video 2
Recognition: Our cyber security specialists make everyone safer
Reward: So, we’re securing a better working environment for them
Video 3
Recognition: Our tech professionals power our future
Reward: So, we’re empowering them with a better working environment
Each video has relevant supporting proof points targeting tech professionals on LinkedIn and YouTube.
We extended our reach with 3 x 6 second “Recognition” YouTube bumper videos simply celebrating our tech heroes.
Our high engagement levels show this strategy of not only saying but proving how highly we regard and support our tech professionals, truly resonates with our future candidates.
LinkedIn 37sec - General
YouTube Bumper - General
YouTube Bumper - Data
LinkedIn 37sec - Cyber
LinkedIn 37sec - Data
YouTube Bumper - Cyber
Execution: The halo effect
We needed to overcome the misperception that a tech career in banking would be boring.
So rather than dull testimonials we created three exciting videos combining real Westpac tech heroes with entertaining graphic animations illustrating the benefits and values we know best resonate with our tech experts.
This graphic approach also allowed us to use our unique Westpac colour pallete to strongly brand our ads so there could be no question as to which bank they were coming from.
Authentically, each of the 3 videos featured Westpac heroes from their specific tech cohort.
In our “Data experts make everything smarter” video we featured 4 diverse data team members and matched them with specific supporting benefits, such as our unique training initiatives, our bespoke data marketplace and an opportunity to work with the latest cutting-edge tools.
In our “Cyber specialists make everyone safer” video we featured 4 cyber security team members and matched them with specific supporting benefits, such as tailored development opportunities, a nurturing and supportive culture, and dedicated teams to help them research, deploy and even customise the latest tech.
Then in our “Tech professionals power our future” video we were able to concentrate on our overarching EVP promise featuring 4 tech professionals matched with our award-winning programs supporting greater diversity in tech, the billions we are investing in tech simplification programs, and the internal mobility opportunities we can offer to extend our tech professionals careers within our bank.
In each video our graphic illustrations of each benefit circle our tech professionals in a heroic halo to highlight just how much we value their contributions. Every aspect of the video from titles to animation style to music choice supports our concept of “Recognition and Reward”.
To further prove our commitment to our tech cohort we supported our campaign with a dedicated Tech professionals page on our existing careers website.
By sharing our Tech EVP in such a heroic manner in our video campaign, we are also sending a powerful message to our company, future candidates and most importantly our own tech professionals – that Westpac truly values their work.
Results
The campaign only launched in February 2025. Results so far are encouraging with YouTube at over 5.5 million impressions and a 75% click through rate.
LinkedIn is yet to report.