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.

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

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

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

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

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

Two groups of more than 1000 people living in the Greater’s area of operations (regional NSW and Queensland’s Gold Coast) were surveyed online, the first group a month before the campaign launch and the second group seven days after the launch.
  
Mr Dwyer said the campaign had attracted national and international attention in the media and online before a commercial went to air. 

“The Greater’s Youtube channel was the 25th most watched channel in Australia in the days following the launch – unheard of numbers for a corporate posting.”

“This is a strategic, well researched campaign from one of Australia’s largest building societies to position itself as a viable alternative to the major banks.”

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

Media information: Craig Eardley on 0437 477 493 or John Dwyer on 0419 447 528