What you need to know:

• Initiative is banking on CommBank-owned ASB to establish its roots in New Zealand.
• Initiative Aotearoa is setting up a cross-Tasman account team that could number in the dozens to serve one of New Zealand's 'Big Four' banks.
• Fein said the agency had been eyeing NZ expansion for a couple of years and ASB is the beginning of that journey. Now she plans to leverage relationships with Australian multinational clients to take share from rivals in New Zealand.
• ASB CMO Helen Fitzsimons said Initiative was a surprise choice, but was impressed by the agency's "energy, strategic thinking, data smarts" .
• Initiative follows The Monkeys, a part of Accenture Song, to launch in New Zealand with ASB.

IPG Mediabrands agency Initiative has launched across the Tasman after being appointed the media agency for New Zealand bank ASB, taking over from long-serving media partner Dentsu in September.

Initiative Aotearoa will combine talent from New Zealand and Australia in a trans-Tasman operation to service the CommBank-owned business, handling integrated media strategy, planning, buying and analysis across all channels. ASB annual media billings are thought to run in the tens of millions of New Zealand dollars. 

The account will be led by Blair Alexander, the media chief of IPG sister agency FCB New Zealand. It will initially operate out of FCB’s offices in Auckland and Wellington and is in the process of setting-up an ASB account team that will likely number dozens in headcount.

Initiative Australia, which grew billings by 20 per cent to $672m in 2022 per RECMA figures, has circa 360 staff. Its clients include IAG, Officeworks, Amazon, Specsavers and Pernod Ricard. 

CEO Melissa Fein told Mi3 the agency has been eyeing the Kiwi market for “a couple of years”, but was waiting for the right partner to launch.

Fein, Alexander and Managing Director Sam Geer met up with the ASB marketing team early in the review process, which kicked off in May.

“They are the sort of marketers that we want to work with, there was a really positive energy. They’ve done some amazing work in the past 12 months and have an impressive history of agency appointments, including The Monkeys” she said.

Per Fein, ASB is just the start of the agency’s NZ ambitions and Initiative is now actively targeting opportunities in the market – and aims to leverage existing client relationships to take share from rivals.

“We see that there's an appetite for our level of energy, media creativity and our Fame and Flow proposition… and we are definitely going to make a big bang,” she said. “Initiative Australia also has many clients that operate in New Zealand that are with other agency groups. We will be looking to talk to some of those CMOs with Australian and New Zealand responsibility to help consolidate and streamline [their media requirements].”

'Out of the blue'

ASB has worked with Dentsu for nearly three decades. In an RFP document, ASB said it was looking to consolidate its agency roster and appoint a single media agency partner.

An initial shortlist of five was whittled down to three in the final round, including Dentsu, Initiative and Omnicom’s Dynamo Media. 

ASB CMO Helen Fitzsimmons told the New Zealand Herald that Initiative “came out of the blue” to trump rivals that were more established in the market.

“Initiative’s energy, strategic thinking, data smarts, and overall approach were aligned to ASB’s transformational agenda and the ambitions of our marketing practice,” Fitzsimons said. “We’re excited to welcome Initiative Aotearoa to New Zealand and to the ASB team.”

The Monkeys secured ASB’s creative business two years ago, which was the Accenture Song creative shop’s first foray in the New Zealand market. Previously ASB was working with Dentsu’s creative agency WiTH Collective.

The agency has worked on ASB campaigns including The First Step is Talking and, more recently, Ben & Amy Live One Step Ahead.

During Covid, ASB won plaudits for activating its sponsorship of the All Blacks to create ads for 100 small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which was created by WiTH Collective (featured below). ASB also hit headlines for its Best Ball Boys creative, which starred K9 ball boys and Venus Williams.