Competing on the one thing the big four can’t buy
How Community Bank Hervey Bay turned twenty years of local banking into genuine community presence
Community Bank Hervey Bay came to Bigger Picture with a clear goal: meaningful customer growth, built on real community presence rather than brand awareness alone. For a community-owned bank up against the resources of the big four, the opportunity was in something the big four can’t replicate. Real, embedded connection to the people and organisations that make the Fraser Coast what it is.
The brief
The big four can outspend a community bank on advertising every day of the week. What they can’t do is belong to a place. Community Bank Hervey Bay wanted to convert two decades of local banking into something the community could see and feel, and to do it in a way that translated into measurable customer growth, not just goodwill.
Photo credit: Cody Fox, Cleva Media
The approach
We designed a sequenced community outreach program to create meaningful touch points across the region over twelve months. Not every element was meant to survive, and that was the point. We tested a Smart Money workshop series and a pop-up presence at Stockland, gathered honest feedback, and cut what wasn’t working. What remained was a focused program built around real community investment.
The centrepiece was a $200,000 AUD community grants program, open to local charities, sporting clubs and community groups across the Fraser Coast. More than forty organisations applied. The grants were announced at the bank’s 20th anniversary Community Showcase, a public celebration of everything the Fraser Coast community is and does.
Bringing it to life meant mobilising every media contact, community organisation, performer and local relationship built across a decade on the Fraser Coast. Coordinating multiple stakeholders, including the Bendigo Bank Community Foundation and senior leadership, sat within scope, as did navigating compliance requirements and keeping the program on track.
Photo credit: Cody Fox, Cleva Media
The result
Around 1,000 people attended the Community Showcase. The reception was exceptional, with widespread calls for it to become an annual fixture. $200,000 AUD was distributed to more than forty local organisations across the region.
Six months into a twelve-month program, the bank’s community presence and goodwill across the Fraser Coast has been transformed, and the work continues.
This is what a Strategic Partnership looks like in practice: strategy and delivery, held together with a partner who knows the region from the inside.
Considering this kind of partnership for your organisation?