We have now completed four 'Innovation' branches for Bendigo Bank since 2019 with the latest in their home town of Bendigo.
Background
Our experience with Bendigo Bank has changed our narrative from the usual ‘Customer centric’ or ‘Immersive experiences’ to a theme with a higher purpose: Community.
The approach of delivering on the needs of a community no matter where or who it is, has become important to our work. Whether community refers to the place in which a brand operates or the commonalities that bind a community of customers together, that which we have in common is a strong and increasingly important theme for brands to demonstrate their purpose around.
Challenge
We have developed a new approach to community. Rather than seeing who lives there and what type of customer they could be, the bank now looks at where the community is in its ‘health cycle’. For example, Leichhardt is currently emerging from a low ebb in the health and wellbeing of its’ community. Having suffered heavily since 2014 from the lockout laws and again since 2020 with COVID, there is much work to do in resuscitating the community behind this once thriving street scene.
Engaging like minded builders and craftspeople to procure the branch is just one of the strategies we have adopted to demonstrate an authentic approach to rebuilding the community. The bank does not see it’s role as dominant or heroic in this quest but recessive, supportive and collaborative as part of a group of local businesses who are already on this path.
We engaged local artist Shannon Crees (https://www.instagram.com/shannoncrees/?hl=en) to create the largest mural she’s ever done for the garden space.