---
title: "People First Bank — brand merger"
description: "Led the digital brand merger: value-based bidding, server-side GTM, new data architecture, and first-party legal requirements."
canonical: "https://gordongeraghty.com/work/people-first-bank"
type: "work"
---



# People First Bank — brand merger

**Gordon Geraghty** — People First Bank — brand merger, EssenceMediacom. Led the digital brand merger: value-based bidding, server-side GTM, new data architecture, and first-party legal requirements. Result: VBB · sGTM · data architecture.

**EssenceMediacom · advertising**

## Results — People First Bank — brand merger

VBB · sGTM · data architecture

I led [People First Bank's](https://www.peoplefirstbank.com.au/) brand merger from a digital perspective at [EssenceMediacom](https://www.essencemediacom.com/) — one of the more complex assignments of my agency career. The real risk in a merger is not the new name failing to land; it is years of accumulated tracking, structure and signal quietly breaking.

### The workstreams

- Value-based bidding (VBB), so bidding decisions reflected what a customer was actually worth rather than raw conversion counts.

- [Server-side Google Tag Manager](https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/tag-manager/server-side) ([sGTM](https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/tag-manager/server-side)), giving measurement the durability and control a bank requires.

- A new data architecture built around first-party data legal requirements. For a bank, privacy obligations shape the design from day one, not as an afterthought.

- Account restructures across the merged brand's digital activity.

The objective: consolidate tracking and bidding without losing momentum through the transition, leaving a clean foundation for growth.

**Tags:** sGTM, VBB, measurement