Helping defaulting customers pays off

The campaign, which ran from 15 November to 15 December 2007, saw 77% of defaulting customers improve their standing with the bank.

The Echo awards are adjudicated by 25 international judges, focussing on strategy, response and the creativity of the campaign. The judges found that the bank's direct marketing campaign had the second best response rate in the world.

“This is a big achievement for the bank. It is in recognition of the hard work and creative efforts to encourage customers to honour their debt obligations in these tough times,” says Barrett Whiteford head of marketing for Credit Card.

The turn of economic events this year has seen many customers fail to service their debts. This was fuelled by rising interest rates, soaring food and fuel prices.

To counter the effects of customers' inability to pay debt, the card division launched its Credit Card Debt Repair campaign late last year.

Whiteford says soon after the campaign was launched positive results began to trickle in. There was as a 77% response rate on the mailing. And 55% of these accounts were totally rehabilitated and are now back in a transactional status. The remainder have re-initiated their minimum of 5% monthly payments.

“As a bank we have learnt that tough financial times require smart and creative strategies in order to survive as a business,” Whiteford concluded.