Sharesies launched 'Let's get growing' with BMF in Australia in August 2021, using film and BVOD to make investing feel accessible to first-time investors.
How Sharesies and BMF Made Investing Feel Human for Australia
Sharesies' 'Let's get growing' campaign is a 2021 Australian market-entry brand platform created by BMF, using film, BVOD, out-of-home and digital media to position the investment app as an approachable entry point for first-time investors across Australia.
Sharesies entered Australia in April 2021, a New Zealand-founded investment platform with a stated mission to make investing low-cost and accessible regardless of starting capital. The public marketing phase followed in late August 2021, with BMF leading the creative work for the Australian launch. The campaign's central message — 'C'mon Aussies, let's get growing' — frames investing not as a sophisticated financial manoeuvre but as a natural, attainable next step, consistent with Sharesies' founding proposition that anyone can invest for as little as one cent across Australian, New Zealand and US securities, as reported by Little Black Book Online.
The lead creative asset, documented in the campaign archive as 'SHARESIES DRIVING 30', is a thirty-second film that grounds the campaign's core argument in everyday human experience. A promotional sign-up offer of A$10 using the code 'GROW' accompanied the campaign rollout, as documented across campaign coverage including bandt.com.au. The campaign archive on Clapboard records three media assets in total. Clapboard assigns 'Let's get growing' a score of 49 out of 100, reflecting competent strategic alignment and clear messaging within a crowded finance category.
Sharesies identified a specific and measurable gap in the Australian investment market at the time of its 2021 launch. According to the Australian Financial Review's company announcements, approximately 1.43 million Australians bought or sold listed securities in the twelve months to May 2021, a figure that represented a growth of around 35 percent year-over-year and 14 percent from December 2020 alone. The retail investor population had nearly doubled from approximately 750,000 before the pandemic to that 1.43 million figure, per the same reporting. Sharesies itself estimated that approximately six million Australians already held listed securities, with a further one million interested but not yet participating, as reported by Little Black Book Online.
That latent population of interested but inactive potential investors formed the strategic core of the 'Let's get growing' campaign. BMF's creative brief targeted a digitally engaged yet financially cautious demographic — younger Australians and first-time investors who found conventional finance communications alienating. In a market where established competitors including CommSec, owned by Commonwealth Bank, and Superhero, an Australian-founded micro-investing platform, had already built retail investor audiences, Sharesies needed a positioning that was emotionally distinct rather than functionally differentiated. The platform's one-cent minimum investment threshold provided a concrete rational hook, but the campaign's tone — empathetic, human, non-jargon — served as the primary differentiator. By choosing film as the lead medium alongside BVOD, out-of-home and digital placements, BMF ensured the campaign could reach audiences at scale while sustaining the emotional register the brand required.
BMF built the 'Let's get growing' campaign around a single, transferable human truth. The campaign uses the creative logic that every person has been a beginner many times across their life — and that starting from zero has never permanently stopped them before. Executive Creative Director Pia Chaudhuri at BMF articulated this directly, stating: 'You've been a beginner many times in your life, but being one didn't stop you then, and it shouldn't stop you now. Investing can seem intimidating, but just like so many other things, it can be worth taking the plunge.' That single insight does meaningful creative work: it reframes the perceived barrier of financial inexperience as a universal human condition rather than a personal failing, lowering the psychological cost of entry for a cautious audience.
The lead film, 'SHARESIES DRIVING 30', is a thirty-second execution that translates this insight into a concise visual and narrative form. The film format was selected deliberately — BVOD distribution in particular allows for targeted delivery to the digitally active younger demographics that Sharesies was pursuing across Australia. Chaudhuri further noted: 'We hope this campaign inspires and empowers investing novices to take heart in the fact we all have to start somewhere, and sometimes, pushing through the awkwardness can bring us one step closer to realizing our dreams.' Sharesies' visual identity at this stage of its Australian market presence retained the bold, accessible aesthetic the brand had developed in New Zealand since its 2016 founding, according to marketentrysecrets.com. Beyond Pia Chaudhuri's credited role as Executive Creative Director at BMF, further production credits for the 'Let's get growing' campaign are not fully documented in publicly available sources.
Sharesies carried a documented investor base of more than 400,000 investors at the time the 'Let's get growing' campaign launched in Australia in August 2021, as reported by Little Black Book Online. That figure contextualises the campaign's role: it was not a conversion campaign for an established local audience but a market-entry platform designed to establish awareness and trust in a geography where Sharesies had only formally operated since April 2021.
No independently verified post-campaign performance metrics — including shifts in Australian sign-up volume, brand awareness scores or return on advertising spend — are publicly available for the 'Let's get growing' campaign at this time. What the structural evidence does support is a campaign built with the right mechanics for its objective. The A$10 sign-up incentive attached to the 'GROW' promotional code created a measurable, trackable response mechanism. The combination of BVOD, out-of-home and digital media gave the campaign both broad reach and targeted precision across the Australian market. The film-led creative, grounded in a universal beginner narrative and delivered through an accessible thirty-second format, was well-suited to reducing the psychological friction that the brand's own strategy identified as its primary obstacle. The Clapboard Score of 49 out of 100 reflects a campaign that executes its market-entry brief with clarity, though the limited creative ambition of the execution and the absence of documented results constrain a higher assessment.
Sharesies' 'Let's get growing' is a 2021 Australian market-entry campaign created by BMF. Launched publicly in late August 2021, it used film, BVOD, out-of-home and digital channels to position the investment platform as an approachable option for first-time investors, supported by an A$10 sign-up offer using the code 'GROW'.
BMF created 'Let's get growing' for Sharesies. The Australian agency was appointed to lead the brand's creative work for its Australian market launch in August 2021, with Pia Chaudhuri serving as Executive Creative Director on the campaign, as documented in campaign coverage.
Sharesies soft-launched in Australia in April 2021. The public marketing phase began in late August 2021 with the 'Let's get growing' campaign, according to reporting by marketentrysecrets.com and coverage documented on bandt.com.au, making the advertising rollout approximately four months after initial market entry.
Sharesies targeted first-time and prospective investors in Australia. The campaign specifically addressed digitally engaged but financially cautious Australians, using the insight that approximately one million Australians were interested in investing but not yet participating, as reported by Little Black Book Online.
Sharesies' 'Let's get growing' campaign ran across film, BVOD, out-of-home and digital media channels in Australia. The lead creative asset was a thirty-second film titled 'SHARESIES DRIVING 30', and the campaign archive on Clapboard records three media assets in total across the 2021 rollout.
Sharesies' 'Let's get growing' campaign received a Clapboard Score of 49 out of 100. The score reflects clear strategic alignment with the brand's Australian market-entry objective and accessible creative execution, while acknowledging limited documented results and a creative approach that remains within conventional category norms.
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