P&N Bank has kicked off a new brand platform called Banking with heart, and it does something banking ads rarely attempt. Instead of a satisfied customer or a friendly teller, the launch film hands the microphone to the competition.
The launch: a big bank boss sings
Created by Chapter Perth and directed by Good Oil’s David Robinson Smith, The Ballad of a Big Bank Boss features an unlikely narrator: a big bank boss singing about the relationship he lost with his customers. The spot is the first major work from the P&N Bank and Chapter partnership.
It launches in early October across TV, including free-to-air, subscription and digital broadcast, plus outdoor, transit, audio, digital and social. The platform will also roll out on P&N’s owned channels, online and in-branch.
The strategic tension
The campaign is built on a simple but sharp line: banking has never been more convenient, but money has never felt more stressful. That tension lets P&N position itself as a more human alternative, without getting lost in a long explanation of customer-owned structure.
“The customer-owned banking model is so good for customers, but so badly misunderstood,” said Hannah Muirhead, Founding Strategy Partner at Chapter. “We needed to shift our advertising from explaining customer ownership to demonstrating the feeling.”
Why this is a useful pattern
For brands in categories where trust is low and complexity is high, this is a useful playbook. P&N doesn’t try to educate the market about mutuality. It dramatises the emotional gap between a people-led bank and a system built around shareholders, automation and self-service.
- Lead with a tension customers already feel, not a product feature.
- Use an unexpected narrator to break the category pattern.
- Build a platform that can travel across TV, outdoor, digital and owned channels.
- Back the feeling with proof — P&N has won Roy Morgan’s Bank of the Year for Customer Satisfaction for three consecutive years.
What marketers can do tomorrow
If you’re selling something structurally better, resist the urge to explain the structure. Find the moment of frustration your category creates and hand the story to someone who makes that frustration visible. Then make sure the campaign has a long shelf life, rather than a single hero film.
Rebecca Green, Head of Marketing at P&N Bank, framed it simply: “While banking continues to evolve, we know genuine care, empathy and human service remain just as important as ever.” That combination of emotion and evidence is what makes the platform more than a one-off.
Source: Campaign Brief
