Louise Ardagh, general manager marketing and member engagement at HBF Health, on stage at AdNews' Perth L!VE told the tale of how HBF combined its east coast and west coast positioning to become one national brand.
“In WA the audience knows us well, we are a brand leader with 83 years of heritage, local knowledge and almost 50% market share,” Ardagh said.
HBF is considered a big brand in WA, but the company has continued to keep close to members and potential audiences by, outside of big marketing campaigns, running community-led activities.
“We partner in various telethons, host a morning tea for 3000 of our most loyal members who have been with us for over 50 years, and host an annual fun run 'Run For Reason' which raised $1.2 million for 200 different health charities this year,” Ardagh said.
“All these activities reinforce to West Australians that we know them, we are one of you and we understand the health system here.”
But on the east coast HBF is a relatively new kid on the block and a challenger brand against well established competition.
“When we launched HBF on the east coast in 2020, we took with us a challenger brand mindset. We wanted to highlight our difference, which was the value we offered to members by being focused on them, but we also refuse to forget our roots,” Ardagh said.
“And so with the help of [creative agency] Leo Burnett the HBF quokkas were born, a cheeky memorable squad of West Coast critters that entertain while simultaneously spruiking love for how great HBF is and calling out east coast rivals.”
The first TVC ad which introduced ‘quokka shit’ to the east coast.
As the new brand positioning with the quokkas was receiving so much love on the east this gave HBF confidence to bring it home, changing it’s traditional positioning that WA had known for over 80 years.
“Having some success against household name insurers, gave us confidence to be a little punchier, a little more confident at home, and ultimately to take our conviction nationally,” Ardagh said.
Ultimately, taking the furry friends back to HBF’s hometown created a bridge between the two coast’s communications and the quokkas have carried the personality of the brand ever since.
“What we now have is a creatively cohesive brand across the country, with the attitude of challenger - how often do you see a brand champion farts on television?” Ardagh said.
“But also have the confidence of a leader and that's bringing those two parts of our story together in a really cohesive way.”
“The response we got from Australians and from brand tracking was great - over the last three years HBF has increased our East Coast prompted awareness by 56%, that has been really gratifying for us.”
Especially as cost of living challenges many businesses, this investment into brand marketing continues to pay off many years after the launch of the brand repositioning.
“The challenge for marketers in this environment isn't about the cost of something versus something else,” Ardagh said.
“It's about building value into the brand, and making sure that we are not vulnerable to price competitiveness, economic downturns or a free alternative.”
Thank you to our supporting partners for Perth L!VE: Boomtown, Nine, Longreach Media and MiQ. And friends of AdNews: Perth Advertising and Design Club (PADC), The Western Australia Marketing Association (WAMA) and The Independent Media Agencies of Australia (IMAA).
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