Postkiwi

I’ve just posted on ASB’s “Ira Goldstein” NZ advertising campaign at Duncan’s TV Ad Land. I was in New Zealand for a year of the campaign - long enough to develop a sense of affection for the Jewish American banker who’s sent to New Zealand to spy on the upmarket entrepreneurial bank.

ASB started out as Auckland Savings Bank, a bank focused on the Auckland community. In the 1980s the Auckland Savings Bank parted company with the Trust Bank group to forge its own identity beyond Auckland. In 1987, the year of the sharemarket crash, ASB forged its identity with colours of gold and grey. In 1989 ASB found a partner in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. ASB opened branches around New Zealand and led the way with innovation in the areas of Saturday trading, phone and EFTPOS banking. Robert the Robot, an ‘amiable slightly droll robot’, introduced the public to ASB’s services.

In January 2000 ASB introduced New Zealand to a new character, Ira Goldstein, a banker on a mission from New York. He was in NZ to check out home loans, investment advisers, business bankers, rural bankers and eventually branchless banking. See it all at Duncan’s TV Adland.