Banking marketing rookie Kjetil Undhjem is pledging to reset the finance category just six months into his role as Head of Marketing and Brand Strategy at ANZ, saying he wants to “break ground and do something that’s never been done”.

Speaking on Reset Now, an initiative between the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), Nine and Mi3 for marketers to share their experience and evolving strategies as they manage the COVID-19 crisis, plan for the recovery, and see how deep consumer mindsets and behaviour might shift, Undhjem says his lack of banking experience has made him approach the job through a customer lens, a perspective that has proven to be valuable during COVID-19.

“What I’ve been trying to do is use other experiences I’ve had in terms of what the customers look for in a crisis. And what do our employees look for in terms of safety and security?  That really hasn’t changed, depending on what industry you’re in,” he says.

“It’s actually good to not know what you don’t know.”

Undhjem brings to ANZ a wealth of experience in FMCG: more than a decade working for Mondelez, including four years in Melbourne managing the chocolate business. He also spent four years at Oslo-based Statoil, a petroleum refining company, and while he has limited banking experience, he has plenty of curiosity.

 “You need a lot of curiosity. Curiosity should feed your creativity, but a lot of people stop there and that’s why courage is important, because I really want to break ground and do something that’s never been done,” Undhjem says.

“I want to do it across a product, across media, across creativity. I want to try to find things that nobody else has done within the banking category to reset it. That’s the ambition I feed off and it’s been my mantra from the outset. I hope that will drive stronger commercial results and happy customers.”

Having a different perspective is helping ANZ navigate its place in a banking system being disrupted not just by the findings of the royal commission but also the arrival of neobanks and the increasing competitiveness of regional banks.

Undhjem says: “I love a good fight in terms of market share and proving oneself, and I’m comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m taking it from an FMCG perspective and being much more focused again on the customer – having added-value products and services, that competitive edge, and tying it off with great creative. It challenges us every day to be better.”

Undhjem, ANZ and the entire banking industry were focused on one giant challenge in March as Australia’s economy shut down and the country entered lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and for Undhjem the focus first had to be internal.

 “It’s like safety on airplanes, you first put on your own oxygen mask before you help others. And it’s the same thing with us – we had to focus on our employees first and foremost because we needed our people to be ready for what we knew was going to be an influx of customers going into hardship,” he says.

“So with that done, we then set up programs in terms of helping our customers. None of us had ever known the scale of change that we went through. Before COVID-19, we had an average of 50 hardship calls coming through a week, and in the first 10 weeks of COVID we had an average of 10,000 calls a week.”

This explosion meant that care and empathy had to be at the heart of ANZ’s approach to customers, while ensuring the bank kept its brand tone through its messaging.

“We’re very proud of the tone and character we have. We call it playfully clever and it’s something that really sets us apart, but even more so, it’s true to who we are as a company. It was important for us as we got into COVID-19 to look at our marketing assets  to see if we should tone it down a little bit, and we did that in most of our ads,” Undhjem says.

ANZ reviewed its marketing to ensure the humour the bank is known for stayed on the right side of light-heartedness rather than being overly playful or silly.

“We made sure that we added more in terms of light-heartedness instead of playfulness. Our mantra going into COVID-19 was not to lose our DNA and who we are, but do it in a way that was more resonant in terms of what was going on in the marketplace.”

Looking to the future, Undhjem expects a refocus when it comes to money and spending.

“People will want to be have a bit more of a buffer against what else can happen going forward, being ready for a rainy day. Don’t spend more than you earn is a basic principle, but it’s important to put that front and centre as you come out of the pandemic and think through how you are going to plan your finances going forward.”