ANZ Bank & TBWA Send Mardi Gras Love to Every Oxford Streets in Australia

Famous the world over for its GAYTMs, for this year’s Mardi Gras sponsorship, ANZ Bank is spreading its support for LGBTIQ+ inclusion beyond inner-city Sydney by transforming Oxford Street signs across the country into fabulous Mardi Gras sculptures.

With 84% of LGBTIQ+ individuals believing there are still parts of Australia where they feel unsafe*, the Festival’s celebration of diversity and commitment to social equality can feel a long way away for those living away from the famous Oxford Street parade-route.

Realising there are Oxford Streets all over Australia (123 to be exact), ANZ and TBWA\Melbourne together with Revolver/Will O’Rourke have transformed Oxford Street signs countrywide into unique representations of LGBTIQ+ culture, from rainbows and love hearts to sailor flamingos and fiercely proud unicorns.

Popping up on Oxford Streets from Bunbury in Western Australia to Berry Springs in the Northern Territory, the campaign culminates in a massive 123-sign, 6-metre tall, 4-tonne ‘Signs of Love’ sculpture unveiled today at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach (and fave Mardi Gras hot spot) to draw attention to ANZ’s push for an #equalfuture for LGBTIQ+ individuals in every town, suburb and city across the vast continent of Australia. 

“We’re letting everyone know that no matter how far from Oxford St Sydney you are, we’re supporting you as we strive for inclusive communities and an #equalfuture for all”, says Carolyn Bendall, Head of Marketing Australia for ANZ.

The campaign also sees ANZ working with Google to display the street signs on Google Street View so people around the world can view the installations.

“As Principal Partners for Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, ANZ has a remarkable history of support for LGBTIQ+ inclusion and this year’s campaign is no exception. Everyone, no matter where they live, deserves to feel celebrated and included”, says TBWA\Melbourne.

The campaign is supported by an integrated PR strategy which reveals local signposts across Australia and sees entertainer Courtney Act (alongside a number of other LGBTIQ+ influencers) lend their voice to the initiative.

Installations:

Sydney – ‘Signs of Love’, Bondi Park

Mittagong, NSW – ‘Eternal Flame’, Oxford St & Bourne Cl.
Deep Lead, Vic – ‘Coming Out’, Oxford St & Battery Rd.
Rockhampton, Qld – ‘Pink FlaminGo-Go’, Oxford St & Talford Street.
East Launceston, Tas – ‘Love is Love’ Oxford St & Abbott St.
Bunbury, WA – ‘I’m Spinning Around’ Oxford St & Austral Pde.
Port Pirie, SA – ‘Turn the Party’, Port Pirie Regional Tourism and Arts Centre.
Berry Springs, NT – ‘We’re Not in Sydney Toto’ Oxford Rd & Cox Peninsula Rd.
Matthew Stoddart
Executive Creative Director TBWA Melbourne & Eleven PR
 

Tell us about your role in the creation of this work?
To give some context, in 2014 ANZ became Principal Partner of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, a premier event on Sydney’s social calendar and one hell of a party. In a bold move, to celebrate ANZ’s newfound partnership we transformed ATM’s around Sydney into fabulous, sparkling GAYTM’s and won LGBTIQ+ hearts and ad industry applause the world-over. In the years since, whether it be ANZ’s GAYTM’s or turning ANZ Darlinghurst into GAYNZ, the work from TBWA together with ANZ has become a regular and much anticipated feature of the Festival, and iconic symbols of diversity, inclusion and respect.
Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?
This year’s campaign ‘Signs of Love’ is about spreading ANZ’s message of inclusion and support for the LGBTIQ+ community beyond inner-city Sydney. After a long history of civil rights struggles, inclusion and respect for the LGBTIQ+ community has come a long way.  But away from the Oxford Street parade-route or outside inner-city Sydney, LGBTIQ+ individuals still face much discrimination and harassment. New research identified that 84% of LGBTIQ+ individuals feel there are still parts of Australia where it is unsafe to be their true selves. So, this year we decided to take a little bit of Mardi Gras love to Oxford Streets all around the country.
Tell us about the creative brief, what did it ask?
It basically highlighted that while we’ve come a long way, there’s still much to do. In 2017, our GAYTM’s campaign took on the theme of #holdtight in the lead up to the marriage equality vote. 2018 marked the 40th year of Mardi Gras and gloriously celebrated the achievement of marriage equality in Australia. Our GAYTMS then became YAYTMS, celebrating the incredible milestone of LGBTIQ+ people being legally able to marry the one they love. To the outside world, it would be easy to think that ‘the job was done’ and social equality reigned supreme for LGBTIQ+. But our research very much indicated otherwise. 
 

Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
We knew that there were still many issues faced by the LGBTIQ+ community living in regional and rural Australia and that ‘growing up gay in the bush’ could be a lonely and tumultuous experience. Then we came across a simple but wonderful fact that there are actually 123 Oxford Streets across Australia – not just the parade-route Oxford Street in Sydney. And a lot of those streets happen to be in the regional and rural areas. 
Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?  
We did initially have another idea to drive a big ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’ style bus across the Australian outback to spread some Mardi Gras love around the country. But upon our discovery that there were actually 123 Oxford Streets across Australia, we couldn’t go past the idea of transforming street signs (instead of GAYTMS).
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development?
Geez, where do I start. I once did a campaign where we made the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra play for 24 hours non-stop, but this was ten times more complex. Securing permits, budget challenges, navigating floods, media leaks – you name it. But the biggest challenge was inherent in the idea. Installing signs in just 48 hours in 8 remote locations across more than 7.5 million square kilometres, filming, photographing, transferring, downloading, editing (on next to no sleep) and going live for a media reveal by 9am the next day. It was a logistical conundrum and one we could never have achieved without our fantastic production partners, Revolver/Will O’Rourke and The Glue Society.

What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience? 
The outpouring of love and amazing reactions that these signs have received in the community has been phenomenal. It really reinforces how meaningful and important this campaign is. Probably my favourite response was from a transgender, Auntie Cece living in Mittagong in regional NSW. Cece’s response when our lovely sign was vandalised (and then stolen) was perfect: “I decided that this morning was going to be (unplanned) the debut of Cece into the open world.” It’s also been a pretty emotional experience, having had my eyes opened by the stories from Farmer Dave and Karen from Finance, absolutely heartbreaking to hear what they’ve had to endure. 
Where do you see the campaign going in the future?
ANZ is an amazing client. Inclusion is not just HR rhetoric or good corporate policy, but truly ingrained into the DNA of the brand and the people. #equalfuture is not a one-off campaign for ANZ, but an ongoing platform. A platform that recognises that if individuals and communities are to thrive, then diversity is critical in ensuring everyone, no-matter who they are, can participate fully in the world. The Mardi Gras sponsorship is just one element of the Equal Future platform, but continues to be an amazing opportunity for us to deliver creative ideas that truly move the world forward.