ANZ Bank has unveiled its latest Mardi Gras sponsorship effort, taking its GAYTMs to the next level by transforming the entire Oxford St branch into a Baroque-inspired “GAYNZ”.

The campaign, created by Whybin/TBWA, is the bank’s third installment of its GAYTMS series and marks the bank’s 10th anniversary of sponsoring the Mardi Gras.

The GAYNZ branch is a baroque-inspired celebration of LGBTI culture. It features two new GAYTMs, ornate walls, a marbled floor and 16 unique, hand-painted murals inspired by the LGBTI community.

Chair of ANZ’s Australia Division Diversity Council, Mark Hand, said: “Diversity, inclusion and respect is an important part of what we do at ANZ so we are particularly proud of our partnership with Mardi Gras, which started because our staff passionately believed in supporting the cause 10 years ago.

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Speaking to Mumbrella Mark Hand, managing director commercial and corporate banking at ANZ and chair of ANZ’s Diversity Council, said the GAYTM campaign was what the bank, and its sponsorship of Mardi Gras is most famous for.

On why supporting diversity is important he said: “I’ve always been big on creating an environment where everybody who wants to work for an organisation. If you want to get the best out of an organisation you need to hire the best people and the only way you can do that is if you hire from 100% population.

“If you don’t create an environment where 100% of the population sees you as a good place to work you’re actually hiring from a smaller per cent of the population.”

Last year the campaign was the victim of vandalism, however, Hand took a more positive look saying the bank had no concerns.

“We don’t have concerns around that. We’ll never know what happened. Our view was it was at the tailend of the festival our view was it was people trying to souvenir. We’ve had no comments that it was an act of vandalism,” he said.

The ANZ Bank is also collaborating with Twitter to develop a rainbow-coloured flag emoji which will appear whenever #GAYNZ is used across the social media platform.

Four GAYTMs have also been returned to the George Street and Pitt Street branches. ATM operator fees for non-ANZ cardholders from GAYTMs will once again be donated to Twenty10, a not-for-profit organisation working with and supporting people of diverse genders, sexes and sexualities, their families and communities.

This year ANZ has 230 staff, family and friends set to march in the Mardi Gras Parade.

Hand explained the sponsorship began 10 years ago when staff asked to march under the ANZ banner at the Mardi Gras.

“They chose to march and they asked to march under the ANZ banner and the CEO at the time let them. It’s just grown from there,” he said.

Last year the campaign was extended to New Zealand and regional areas.

Hand said: “We’ve seen our GAYTMs go to Daylesford from a campaign last year. They’ve been to Perth and they’ve been to NZ. We’ve had lots of banks from around the world enquire and we’ve said absolutely. This is not about a commercial venture, this is about supporting a community.”

On working with Whybin\TBWA Melbourne, Hand said: “They’ve got the recognition they deserve globally with awards out of Cannes. It’s fantastic for them and we’re happy to be their muse in some respect, to be able to provide a canvas for them to show their creativity. It’s phenomenal what they’ve done and they deserve every plaudit that they get.”

Daniel Pizzato, senior creative at Whybin\TBWA, told Mumbrella: “I worked on the 2014 and 15 GAYTM campaign. We have a really good relationship with ANZ Bank and they’re really supportive of the ideas we bring forward and because this was a big anniversary we had to really up the ante. We worked on the idea of ‘GAYNZ’ and they fell in love with it.

“Aesthetically we wanted to up the ante and make a really out and proud support for the LGBTI community so we went to the baroque period which historically has been embraced by the LGBTI community because it is playful, flamboyant and fun. Then we fused in a few other traditions: tropicana and hollywood regency just to give it a bit more buzz.”

CREDITS:

Client: ANZ Creative

Agency: Whybin\TBWA Melbourne

Creative: Executive Creative Director: Paul Reardon

Creative Directors: Tara Ford. Daniel Pizzato

Creatives: Tim Woolford. Scott Canning

Production: Senior Producer: Janine Wertheim

Production Company – Will O’Rourke: Artistic, Design and Project Directors: The Glue Society’s James Dive & Pete Baker

Managing Director/EP: Michael Ritchie

EP/Head of Projects: Josh Mullens

Producer: Jasmin Helliar

Production Manager: Phoebe Marks

Production Designer: Sam Hobbs

Art Director: Sam Wilde

Construction Manager: Cameron Stanton

Scenic Painters: Andrea Davies, Bill Undery, Mark Dixon, Rosalind McKelvey Bunting, Colin Richards, Jo Allsop Graphic

Designer: Robyn Schremmer

Account Service and Planning: Regional Group

Head: Ricci Meldrum Group

Business Director: Claire Tenzer

Account Manager: Emily Gray

Account Executive: Jack Clemenger

Digital Planner: Paul Arena