Project Overview

ANZ has opened Foreign Exchange (FX) retail facilities at Melbourne’s International Airport on both landside and airside concourses. The distinctive design has set a new benchmark for airport small footprint retail design. The sites have not only lifted the ANZ brand, but also the Melbourne airport retail experiences, bringing it to a global benchmark on best retail practices in Australia and Victoria. This design has resulted in a significant increase in business and building of brand recognition for its global customers.

Project Commissioner

ANZ

Project Creator

Geyer

Team

The Geyer design team:

Tim Giles
Robyn Lindsey
Tina Murray
David Spaccatore
Lisa Rus
Elena Critchley

Project Brief

ANZ’s Foreign Exchange presence in international airports is critical to their business strategies. ANZ requested a distinctive, strong brand presence and identifiable design concept. This project is the first of their new FX ‘Hubs’ to support servicing their mobile customers as they travel, and needed to be easily identifiable through the design.

Quick, easy access to foreign currency is a critical international travel need. Accessing that from a trusted brand is reassuring for a last minute task before boarding flights, and before or after customs. The sighting of a foreign currency provider is often a reminder to change currency, hence their presence and visibility is critical.

A strategic brief supporting business growth was developed and included:

_ Create international standards for ANZ FX throughout the Asia Pacific Region.
_ Create an identifiable look for ANZ FX, building a recognizable brand identity.
_ Attract customers in a busy, active, distracting environment.
_ Assist ‘quick purchase’ decision making in a tough, competitive retail setting.
_ Provide a new benchmark for small footprint ANZ retailing.
_ Reference the global nature of the product (cash).
_ Appeal to multiple cultures and traveler demographics.
_ Make it easy for quick understanding by travelers on the move and provide efficient facilities for staff to do their job fast.
_ Design two formats to suit different customer needs; ‘Do it Yourself’ and ‘Staff Assisted’ FX applied in both Landside and Airside concourses
_ Improve ANZ’s business by achieving growth in customers and transaction numbers.

Project Innovation / Need

The new Foreign Exchange kiosk sets a global benchmark for functional, branded and creative
approaches to designing a kiosk. This is the first time an ANZ FX facility has been
designed in an open environment in airside terminals, optimising accessibility and ease of use for
customers. This challenges the norm on security requirements by creating a total open
experience with the employees and customers and supporting the ANZ brand proposition on
being customer focused. The development of both self-serve and staff assisted facilities on both
airside and landside allow ANZ FX to cater to different customer needs.

The FX facilities needed careful and integrated consideration to the adjacent environment to add to the total retail experience of passengers. The project received strong and collaborative support from the Melbourne Airport Committee.

ANZ optimised the small footprint in the international terminal, ensuring every metre of real estate was used. This was done by micro planning and designing the staff side and back of house facilities, with a kit of design components designed to potentially apply to varying global locations.

The use of simple technology applied in an innovative way creates a visual and iconic element, while allowing tailored advertisements and information to be presented to customers, supporting the clients business growth.

Design Challenge

The key challenge was to create a design to enable ANZ’s Foreign Exchange to stand out in busy airport environments throughout the Asia Pacific. It needed to attract travelers who have many other distracting activities to attend to whilst departing. A design that differentiated ANZ from competitors in the terminal was mandatory in order to increase market share. The design features needed to be translatable across open kiosks, full environments and be adaptable to different terminals in different countries, commencing with Melbourne International Airport. Security requirements specific to airports also had to be solved for each location.
Finding hard wearing, durable materials for the customer side counter was critical. Materials had to be capable of withstanding the abrasion of luggage scratches, belt buckles, bag buckles and cleaning equipment. This large expanse of vulnerable counter front also had to assume an iconic role in identifying ANZ FX in any of their locations, so that travelers could identify them in different regions as they travelled.
The Ticker Tape feature was used as an additional icon at a higher position to attract longer sight lines across the terminal. It uses the concept of moving text to attract the eye while informing passengers of the foreign exchange rates. A major iconic wall showing graphic imagery of the globe reinforces the global nature of ANZ as a brand and services in money exchange. Well considered lighting levels were created to ensure the facilities stand out in the environment acting like a beacon in the terminal.

Sustainability

Sustainability for this project was evident in the following major areas:

_Air - the open, low height environment of the kiosk allowed the site to utilise existing base
building air thereby reducing doubling up on M&E systems and equipment and power usage.

_Lighting - utilising existing base building general lighting lux levels, and adding low voltage LED lighting within the ribbon, reduced the requirement for high powered ‘retail’ lighting. Deliberate consideration of, and playing on, lux levels and the location of lighting creates mood and features textural play on materials while going against the norm of high levels.

_Flooring - utilised existing airport floor to limit material variances.

_Materials - aluminium trim and cladding allowed for longevity while being able to be recycled in
the future. Eco panel was used to support acoustic requirements and feature cladding.

Interior Design - Retail

This award recognises building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.

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