Best Use of a Celebrity Spokesperson

Financial Institution: DnB, Norway
Title: Good Morning Mrs. Clooney

This spot is like a 30-second version of “The Hangover” for women. You wake up in a hotel room. You’ve obviously had a rough night. You look down at this ginormous rock on your ring finger. You’re married? You weren’t yesterday. You pick a wedding dress off the floor. Before you can think “What have I done???” none other than George Clooney steps out of the bathroom — for real, in the flesh. “I like your dress,” says the handsome Hollywood star. “Looks better off than on.” O.M.G. This commercial from DnB, a Norwegian bank, is hilarious. It’s a bit indirect with the link back to financial services: “Some people are lucky in life. For the rest of us, saving up can be smart.” But who cares? It’s super funny. The one-minute spot has been viewed over 2 million times on YouTube.

DNB – MRS. GEORGE CLOONEY

Most Freaky Guerilla Stunt

Financial Institution: NAB, Australia
Title: Guerilla Traps

NAB went fully guerilla with this pair of clever stunts. The Aussie banking giant produced two fascinating spycam videos capturing how people react when forcibly trapped. In one video, job applicants are held captive in an interview by a creepy manager who bolts and bars the doors. In the other video, apartment shoppers get locked inside a unit by the rental agent. The point? No one likes to get trapped, even in a home loan, so consumers should consider NAB’s flexible options. Don’t try this in kind of campaign in America, or you’ll get sued for kidnapping. Seriously.

NAB – TRAPPED IN JOB INTERVIEW

NAB – TRAPPED IN APARTMENT

Best Tear Jerker

Financial Institution: ASB Bank, New Zealand
Title: Mint Sauce

A young boy wants a new Nintendo DS. Alas, he can’t afford it. So the plucky little New Zealander decides to raise a sheep for slaughter (as boys in New Zealand so often do). But after nurturing his baby lamb, he has starts having second thoughts. In the end, he can’t do it, and opts to sell his sheep’s wool instead of its carcass. You know the expression, “You can sheer a sheep many times but only fleece it once?” It’s a touching production with a refreshing and honest perspective on humanity. It’s much more clever than many of the spot’s “Lemonade Stand” counterparts you see so often in the U.S.

ASB BANK – MINT SAUCE

Best Use of Man’s Best Friend

Financial Institution: FNB, Africa
Title: Lost Dog

This moody, 90-second TV commercial shows the lengths people are willing to go to for their pets… but with a clever, unexpected twist at the end. The minimalistic soundtrack (think: Trent Reznor’s soundtrack for “The Social Network”) creates a palpable tension, but the lofty narrated speech isn’t really needed. Dog lovers will totally relate to this spot.

FNB – LOST DOG

Best ‘Glee’ Knockoff

Financial Institution: Innovations FCU, USA
Title: Bad Romance

The credit union’s staff get together for a dance routine ala Glee, set to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” There are two questions that will probably cross your mind when watching this video: (1) Who is this video for, and (2) how did a credit union with no more than 50 staffers wind up with so many young and attractive employees? The 4:48 long video obviously took a lot of staff time to produce, but with only 2,925 views, you might think it was more work than it was worth. But… Innovations’ employees clearly have a lot of fun making these little dance numbers, so maybe the answer to the first question is: The video is primarily made to benefit staff as an internal team/culture-building activity. You can see another video with the whole Innovations’ staff (including the CEO) in this superb 2009 Christmas video.

INNOVATIONS FCU – BAD ROMANCE

Most Ridiculous Lawsuit

Financial Institution: New Zealand Credit Union
Title: Piggybankers

This spot shows average consumers lugging their banker around everywhere, like monkeys on their backs. When one person toting a piggybanker walks into a New Zealand Credit Union branch, the banker gets tossed out. Bankers in New Zealand didn’t care for the message and filed a complaint, saying that it was an attack that discredited registered banks and thus was a deliberate attempt to undermine the stability of the country’s entire financial system. Psshaw!!! It’s a parody, lighten up.

NZCU – PIGGYBANKERS

Most Bizarre Cartoon

Financial Institution: Numerica Credit Union, USA
Title: Animal Instincts

This animated spot with bears and bunnies is so bizarre, you might have a hard time believing it’s a real commercial that actually aired on TV. You can watch another wacky animated ad — this one with raccoons — at the credit union’s official YouTube channel.

NUMERICA CREDIT UNION – ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Best Drive-Thru Theater Act

Financial Institution: Michigan First Credit Union, USA
Title: Boogie Woogie Banking

Michigan First set up a hidden camera to film members’ reactions as a dance crew puts on a show in the credit union’s drive-thru lanes. “Would you like some entertainment today while you wait,” the drive-thru service rep asks. “Ummm, sure?” A troupe of seven young dancers pops out of nowhere, doing their thang to C+C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now.” The credit union also surprised drive-thru members with a mariachi band.

MICHIGAN FIRST – BOOGIE WOOGIE BANKING

Best Mr. Mayhem Imitation

Financial Institution: RaboDirect, Australia
Title: Stealing Your Dreams

A metaphorical thief working on behalf of big, bad banks steals people’s financial dreams — the same kind of dark humor found in Allstate’s Mayhem anti-spokesman character. Consumers are encouraged to steal their dreams back with a 6.5% term deposit.

RABODIRECT – STEALING YOUR DREAMS

Best Pirate Movie

Financial Institution: Island FCU, USA
Title: Pirates Tale

Aye, this video be a wee bit unusual mates. It starts with a one-minute narrative about big banks swindlin’ yer doubloons, then shifts into a singing/dancing pirate act (if you’re thinking of “Pirates of Penzance,” you’re about right). The lyrics, costumes and props in this video are all worth checking out. The credit union turned the three-and-a-half minute pirate production into a 30-second TV spot. Their website even has a banner ad saying “Tell yer bank to walk the plank!”

ISLAND FCU – ARGH, IT BE A PIRATE TALE

Best Villain

Financial Institution: NAB, Australia
Title: Banks Hate Us

You’ve heard the expression, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Well NAB tries to ingratiate itself with consumers in this TV advert by painting itself as the bank hated most by other bankers. The bank’s reasoning: If other banks hate NAB, they must be doing something right. The spot puts a fresh spin on an all-to-common meme in financial advertising: the reasons why people hate banks.

NAB – UNPOPULAR

Best Customer Testimonial

Financial Institution: Webster Bank, USA
Title: Type W Personality

This ad campaign features real Webster bankers and customers. The spot tells the story of one customer, Pat, who was about to depart for an early international flight. But Pat forgot her passport, which was locked in a Webster safety deposit box. So she calls Cheryl Poryanda, a real VP at Webster, who wakes up some folks to have them open the branch early. “Losing sleep over her customer’s needs? That’s just a part of Cheryl’s ‘Type W’ personality.”

WEBSTER FINANCIAL – TYPE W PERSONALITY

Weirdest Use of a Talking Squirrel

Financial Institution: BankWest, Australia
Title: Click to Chat

A middle aged man woos his lunch date when a gust of wind suddenly blows his toupee off. Yikes! Fortunately, there is a talking squirrel lunching at the table right behind him. The helpful little bugger plops his tail perfectly over the man’s hairless dome. His date doesn’t notice, the man’s dignity saved. It’s cute. It’s creepy. And what does it have to do with the bank’s innovative click-to-chat online customer service program? Who knows? But aren’t talking squirrels cute?

BANKWEST – CLICK TO CHAT

Best Use of Bad Habits

Financial Institution: UBank, Australia
Title: Habits

This spot presents some common habits like nail-biting and toe-tapping in a lighthearted manner, then encourages viewers to start a new habit — one that’s good for you: a savings habit. As with many TV commercials these days, UBank opts for the creative non sequitur — 23 seconds of acerbic humor, followed by a casual segue into the product offer. It’s a good ad — better than most bank commercials — but it could do a bit more to highlight the benefits of frequent saving.

UBANK – HABITS

Best Use of a Goofy Foam Costume

Financial Institution: NAB, Australia
Title: We Killed The Asterisk

NAB ran a whole series of commercials where a couple of secret agents (Blues Brothers look-alikes) defeat a guy wearing a foam asterisk costume. The asterisk always ends up on the run and imperiled… or worse. NAB says consumers will undoubtedly encounter this evil asterisk character whenever other banks claim to have free checking. So NAB “kills” the evil asterisk to emphasize that their checking accounts have no/fewer conditions.

NAB – WE KILLED THE ASTERISK (ROCKET)

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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ALLY BANK – ACCEPT IT
This 30-second TV spot has been viewed 87,993 times on YouTube.

The latest campaign, using the tagline “No Nonsense, Just People Sense,” includes two TV and two radio commercials, as well as print, digital and outdoor. Spots will air on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, HGTV and the Golf Channel. Print will run in Money, Fortune, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Digital advertising covers CNNMoney.com, Yahoo, MSNBC, AOL, Kiplingers.com, Real Simple and Bankrate.

This is the first work from new agency Grey New York, who won the account in April from incumbent Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which handled Ally’s advertising since the brand’s inception in 2009.

Ally Bank has now had three different ad campaigns in three years, produced by two separate ad agencies. With that kind of track record, it’s difficult to deliver any kind of consistent message or build a cohesive brand.

Ally launched with a wildly popular ad campaign starring a dubious corporate shuckster who loved tormenting children. (Remember when he asked the little girls, “Do you want a pony?” Great stuff.) The cruel and unusual twists in Ally’s advertising debut helped frame them as a plain, simple, direct and straightforward banking alternative, all while distancing the new brand from its tainted GMAC past.

If Ally had stuck with Mr. Disclaimer, they might have been able to create a pop culture icon like Allstate has done with Mr. Mayhem, but in 2010,  Ally switched gears completely. The bank abandoned its “straightforward” message and shifted to a narcissistic “love” theme with customers bragging about their affections for Ally. The “love” campaign was awkward and obnoxious — perhaps deliberately so — but it wasn’t very plausible. Come on, does anyone really love their bank?

Which is it? Accept? Or don’t accept?

In Ally’s new 30-second TV spot, a man at an ATM is posed with a familiar question: “The ATM will charge you a fee of $3.00 for this transaction. Accept? Don’t Accept?”

Someone behind him looking over his shoulder says, “It’s what they do. Accept it.”

Then everyone around him piles on with pressure to give in:

• “You can’t change the way banking works. Just accept it man.”
• “You give them all your money and they put you on hold. Just accept it.”
• “What are you going to do? Bury your money in your backyard? Accept it.”
• “Just stay with the herd son. Accept it.”
• “It’s a bank. What do you want? A hug??”

“Accept it! Accept it! Accept it!”

Faced with this moral dilemma, how does the man respond? Does he stand for justice and stick his finger in the eye of greedy bankers everywhere by pressing “Don’t Accept?” Does he transform himself into the hero of the common man by thumbing authority in true counter-culture style? Nope. The lousy bum caves. After all that build up and anticipation he just accepts it!?! You so desperately want the ATM guy to tell the onslaught of mindless drones bullying him to conform where to stick it. You’re rooting for him: “Take a stand! Man up!” When he gives in, you feel empty and disappointed.

The spot does a good job priming the audience with an anti-bank revolutionary message. But instead of delivering a clear takeaway, the audience is left confused. “Wait, you’re telling me I should reject the concept of bank fees, but in reality I should just accept them? What is that all about?” Vague and ambiguous endings may be appropriate for David Lynch movies, but not ads. You just don’t beat around the bush; you don’t send mixed signals.

The ATM guy should have stuck it to “the man,” pressed “Don’t Accept,” hopped on his iPhone and opened an Ally account. Bam! Done. Problem solved.

Unlike Ally’s earlier commercials starring Mr. Disclaimer, this latest spot from Ally only gives a glancing reference to the benefits viewers might enjoy. Ally seems to suggest you won’t pay any ATM fees, but they don’t say so outright. All they offer you is the abstract promise of “no nonsense, just people sense.” At least with Mr. Disclaimer, the benefits were more obvious and concrete: no double-talk, no unnecessary or complex loopholes, no bait-and-switch gambits. And Ally’s old one-word slogan was both brilliant and refreshing: “Straightforward.”

The new commercial shares the jaded sense of humor found in all of Ally’s previous campaigns, only this time it feels a little darker, a little more bleak vs. the humorous and more lighthearted executions we’ve seen in the past.

Ultimately, Ally’s latest TV spot falls under the broad category of bank-bashing ads. Instead of really focusing on Ally’s core points of differentiation, the main message seems to be: “If you don’t like banks, consider switching to Ally.”

Indeed, that’s pretty much what Sanjay Gupta, Ally’s CMO, said. “The fundamental message we hope to convey to customers is that they don’t have to accept ‘nonsense’ from their bank,” Gupta explained in a statement. “They can choose a bank that offers something better.”

Yeah, but what’s better about Ally? The new ad doesn’t really explain.

$100,000 Suitcase

In the new campaign’s second commercial, Ally conducts a rather unusual and daring experiment. A man on the street hands a briefcase stuffed with $100,000 to perfect strangers, asking them to watch it for him. “Thank you so much,” the man says. “I’ll be right back.” He runs off.

The big surprise? No one takes a dime from the briefcase.

“How much in fees does your bank take to watch your money?” the announcer asks.

“If your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an Ally.”

It’s a much better ad than the first, but it doesn’t tie back to the “nonsense/people sense” message very strongly.

ALLY BANK – $100,000 SUITCASE

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Stunt #1 – The Honesty Experiments

In its first barrage of guerilla marketing ploys, NAB filmed a series of psychological experiments — dropping “lost wallets” around for people to find, giving people incorrect change and letting money slip from paid actors’ pockets — to see how folks would react. Indeed the vast majority of Aussies did the right thing in each experiment.

NAB frames The Honesty Experiment in the context of its credit card offering: “Australians are an honest lot,” NAB says. “They deserve credit cards to match.”

Incorrect Change
NAB set up an espresso cart on a downtown Melbourne street. The barista always gave every customer $5 too much change. 91% of people returned the excess change.

NAB – INCORRECT CHANGE
This two-minute video starring an obnoxious barista has been viewed over 44,000 times.

Lost Wallets
What would someone do if they found a wallet in the street? NAB lost a number of wallets containing some cash and a business card bearing an address on the same street. All the wallets were returned with the money inside. But then NAB made things harder and upped the amount of cash in the wallet, in which case only 88% of the wallets were returned.

NAB – LOST WALLETS
12% couldn’t resist the temptation of a wallet stuffed with cash. They kept it.
The other 88% gave the fat wallets back.

Leaky Pockets
Would people do the right thing if they saw a stranger drop money in the street? NAB hired an actor to drop $20 dollar notes on a city footpath, then filmed people’s responses. 95% of the time, people went out of their way to give the money back.

NAB – LEAKY POCKETS
An NAB drops money with cameras rolling.

Stunt #2 – Win an ATM Installed in Your Home

“In the spirit of ultimate convenience, and making our ATM network one of the most accessible in the country,” an NAB promotional site says, “We thought, hey why not see if someone wants an ATM in their loungeroom?”

That’s right. NAB has a contest that gives one lucky winner an ATM installed in their home. The winner will also receive an account loaded with $1,000, an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4, “so you can bank from your couch anytime,” as the bank puts it.

There’s one hitch. The winner must be willing to allow their in-home ATM exploits be broadcast over the internet.

Stunt #3 – Doug Gets Tied to a Pole

Australia’s big banks retaliate against the NAB’s growing popularity by kidnapping “Doug G,” one of the NAB’s employees, then wrapping him in duct tape to a light pole in downtown Melbourne. NAB is, of course, behind the prank.

Doug makes the most of his situation, talking to passersby about the advantages of NAB. “We’ve had so many good things happen this past year…Australia’s number one everyday bank, that the other banks — it’s just plain jealousy,” Doug explains.

“We kept lending to business, when other banks didn’t,” adds Doug.

All in all, the “light pole” gag is a lighthearted, playful, creative and fairly inexpensive idea to execute. Stunts like these can generate fantastic PR opportunities.

NAB GETS TIED UP
This short video has been viewed over 20,000 times on YouTube.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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In this digital world, users can interact, move around and explore the features of the award-winning CommBank Property Guide app.

“The augmented reality press advertisement is an interactive way to communicate the benefits of the CommBank Property Guide app to the customer,” said Mark Murray, GM/Consumer Marketing at Commonwealth Bank.

STEP 1 – Find the ad in a newspaper or print it out.

STEP 2 – Download the CommBank 3D reader app. When you start up the app, the camera view will open with overlaid instructions.

STEP 3 – Point your iPhone at the image on the ad and the streets, houses and locals of Cherryford Hill will come to life.

COMMONWEALTH BANK – INTERACTIVE 3D AUGMENTED REALITY AD DEMO

COMMONWEALTH BANK – PROPERTY GUIDE APP

The app is fully narrated by “Paul,” a virtual host who helps users navigate their way around Cherryford Hill. Within the the 3D augmented suburb, you can click to see recent sale prices for virtual properties and unlock hidden items like the ability to turn the day into night. There is also a conveniently located link to download the CommBank augmented reality property-finder app.

Commonwealth Bank’s campaign represents a bizarre marriage of old and new media channels, where traditional print advertising is used to deliver a digitally-interactive ad. You can’t have one without the other; it takes both a newspaper and smart phone — one communications technology from the 17th century, the other from the 21st.

“We will continue to explore the convergence of traditional and digital marketing channels in the future,” Murray said. “We are constantly looking for ways to better engage with our customers and ensure they have a positive experience with our brand.”

CommBank’s ad is similar to one AXA Insurance ran in September 2010. In AXA’s execution, people could lay their smart phones on the ad to fill in a piece of a disaster photo. A video played, showing how a giant Godzilla-like monster destroyed the street scene.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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The Situation: Recent economic crisis has turned banks into highly unpopular institutions.

The Goal: Promote a new, flexible home loan targeting younger professionals in need of their own homes, or homes for their new families.

The Solution: Avoid negative perceptions by using fun and unusual communications.

The Singer: A viral online video campaign built on creative, offline guerilla tactics.

One day in late fall 2010, an average-looking man named Božidar Perićić started randomly belting out songs around Zagreb, in Croatia. The source of his joyous outbursts? He was thrilled to be the owner of a new apartment.

Meanwhile, ad agency Bruketa&Žinić OM secretly filmed The Singer in various public situations, uploading short video clips to YouTube — none of which hinted at a connection to Raiffeisen Bank.

The public suddenly became engrossed with the mystery singing man, unaware that one of the largest banks in Central and Eastern Europe was behind the gambit. Thousands of viewers shared the videos with friends, and commented on which was their favorite. A Facebook group “I’m Not a Talent, But I Can Throw a Show!” was also formed to help distribute videos. The local press even ran interviews with The Singer.

For a full month, The Singer did nothing but post his video ballads, 14 in all. In one he sings to a policeman that pulls him over. The policeman isn’t impressed, and subjects the bubbly singer to a sobriety test. In another he sings to a tram operator. Next a tow truck driver. Then he tries to use his penchant for song to crash an upscale party.

[
RAIFFEISEN – BREAKING GLASS

One of Raiffeisen Bank’s viral videos where The Singer shows us how he uses his power of song to break a glass window.

14,000 Facebook fans and 320,000 video views later (that’s 10% of the Coation market), Raiffeisen finally ran a TV spot revealing that they were the ones responsible. In the ensuing weeks, they aired an entire series of commercials starring The Singer, tying it all together with the line, “Flexi-Housing Loans, in tune with your needs.”

According to Raiffeisen, “Singing has been scientifically proven to release stress and anxiety, enhance happiness and general wellbeing, all of which made an excellent metaphor for new, flexible housing loans.”

RAIFFEISEN – THE SINGER DOCUMENTARY CASE STUDY
This video gives an excellent two-minute overview of the campaign and how it went viral.

RAIFFEISEN – THE KEYS

This is the TV ad divulging Raiffeisen as the bank behind The Singer and his video ballads. The song translated from Croation: “This is the story about the day / When everything started moving my way / When I started singing at my new home, hooray! / I have an apartment / (chorus) He has an apartment / I have a home / (chorus) He has his own home / I can walk naked around / My butt bare, totally unbound / I can hang wallpapers / Eat paté and peppers / I can entertain guests / I can swear and protest / I can snore at night / I can do whatever I like.”

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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A sampling of actual tweets about Commonwealth Bank’s
latest ad campaign taken January 2011.

What would you do if it seemed like everyone hated your ads? Would you gut it out? Or would you give into the knee-jerk instinct to pull the campaign immediately?

Unlike most management teams in the financial industry, that’s not what Commonwealth is doing. The bank’s thick-skinned leaders are sticking to their guns. Even when research concludes that 30% of the entire country hates their ads, the bank still won’t back down. That takes balls. There are plenty of banks and credit unions where all it takes is one or two complaints and you can kiss an entire ad campaign goodbye forever.

Commonwealth’s marketing team are no strangers to controversy. Indeed, they seem to enjoy stoking the fire. (After all, the bank’s slogan is “Determined to Be Different.”) Back in 2008, they debuted an ad campaign that was so bad, it actually mocked itself. Even though one out of every three people found the spots annoying, Commonwealth’s brand awareness grew from 70% to 95% while cutting the media budget by a third.

Commonwealth broke its latest campaign in 2010, but it hasn’t fared any better. Complaints have been streaming in for nearly three straight years now, so don’t expect a reversal in direction anytime soon.

Do irritating ads work better than funny ones?

Advertising is a funny business. Literally. Look at enough ad agency portfolios and you’ll see so much comedy that you’ll start to wonder if the only successful approach is humor. “Entertain the audience” seems to be the common theme underpinning the material. But what if funny, entertaining ads aren’t the most effective? Sure everyone talks about that “funny spot I saw last night,” but who was it for again? For instance, do you remember who was behind the “Herding Cats” Superbowl spectacular? And what they were advertising? (Hint: “Managing the complexities of the digital economy.”)

What if what we like to call “good ads” don’t work as well as the ads we don’t like? Maybe irritating is effective? After all, the parent company who permanently etched the expression, “HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead,” into our brains saw its sales shoot up 234% nearly overnight following the debut of its repetitive ad campaign. As much as you may hate Snuggie spots mixing the Macarena with karaoke, the blanket-with-sleeves has sold over 20 million units. And don’t forget “Clap on, clap off. The Clapper!”

HEAD ON – APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD

Before you rush to judge this spot, remember that these six words repeated three times in just 11 seconds did more for this advertiser than probably all the ads you’ve ever run.

SNUGGIE – “THE SNUGARENA!”

It may be one of the most obnoxious ads in history, but that hasn’t stopped nearly 700,000 people from voluntarily watching it on the official Snuggie YouTube channel. (If you’re up for a laugh, check out this Snuggie parody video.)

COMMONWEALTH BANK – CALL YOU BACK

By comparison, Commonwealth’s current ads seem dull and uncontroversial. There isn’t much to get wound up over.  The latest campaign is hardly as annoying. There certainly isn’t much complain about as far as Commonwealth’s visual aesthetics and soundtrack are concerned.

The downside to annoying ads?

Some ad experts think advertisers need to worry about more than just sales.

“I think that irritating ads could pose a longer-term danger to the brands that use them,” notes Roger Dooley, a marketing consultant and author of Neuromarketing. “At the cognitive level, I find myself repelled by an advertiser bold enough to acknowledge that their ads are annoying me, and then continue to assault me with the objectionable elements in the same ad.”

“The real danger, though, doesn’t really involve conscious processing by the viewers,” Dooley continues. “If viewers begin to associate the brand or packaging with the negative emotion of a loud and annoying interruption of their entertainment, eventually the brand will suffer.”

“Companies like Coca Cola and Anheuser-Busch know something about building long-term brands, and most of their ads are suffused with positive emotions,” Dooley concludes. “Then again, they have the budget and time to think long-term.”

Conclusion and takeaways

Don’t abandon your approach just because you encounter some vocal detractors. Branding is about differentiation, not mass appeal. If your brand strategy is focused around a specific audience segment, obviously your ads won’t jive with everyone. Many years ago, the direct mail industry said you should shoot for a 2% response rate. Not anymore. These days, it’s almost as if you should set out to make 2% of your audience mad. At least that way, you can be certain people are paying attention and taking notice.

In some ways, you could almost consider yourself lucky if people hate your ads. Most ads trigger no reaction at all. Ads that no one finds objectionable don’t work, and ad strategies that don’t spark internal arguments among your management team aren’t usually worth pursuing. When people are annoyed by your “horrible ads,” you may have actually hit an advertising sweet spot.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Customers compete to see whose cartoon creation will star in the next TV commercial from Lloyds TSB

“We are always looking for innovative ways to engage with consumers. Our latest initiative is a fun way to bring the brand to life.”
— Catherine Kehoe
Lloyds TSB

Lloyds TSB has launched a microsite enabling people to create avatar characters in the style of the bank’s longstanding TV campaign. Users can customize characters to resemble family members, friends and even celebrities.

At the microsite, users can manipulate their avatar creation by changing facial features, hair, mouth, physical build, clothes, and accessories.

The new platform, called Lloyds TSB Me, runs on a regular internet browser and requires no special skills, software or downloads. In fact, it’s so easy to use, most five- or six-year old children could probably figure it out.

‘LLOYDS TSB ME’ MICROSITE

Character creation tools include height, body type, skin color, hair, facial features, clothes, accessories and the background environment. The process is both fun and intuitive.

‘LLOYDS TSB ME’ CONTEST

To enter the contest, entrants must provide their name and email address.

Once the characters have been created users can share the images with their friends and enter a competition for their character to feature on a future Lloyds TSB television ad.

Lloyds TSB is promoting the microsite and contest on its website, through traditional PR channels and on social media platforms.

The microsite enables users to share their character creations over social media networks. Users can also download high-resolution images. If you provide your email address, your character will be saved so you can modify it in the future.

The Lloyds TSB Me application is also available on a dedicated Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/LloydsTSBMe, where users can create characters, view the gallery and get the latest news on the competition all without leaving the Facebook page.

LLOYDS TSB – FACEBOOK PAGE

The Facebook page for ‘Lloyds TSB Me’ has 35,407 likes. There have been 28,077 characters entered so far. The most-liked character created for the contest has 333 likes.

LLOYDS TSB – YOUTUBE CHANNEL

The YouTube channel for Lloyds TSB has one of the best, most attractive interfaces in the retail banking sector. You can watch an entire series of commercials from Lloyds TSB starring the bank’s animated characters. You can also find the entire lineup of commercials in the Lloyds TSB Cinema within its corporate website.

The ‘Lloyds TSB Me’ was created by Saint@RKCR in partnership with MEC Interaction. The agency introduced its animated advertising style, designed by the award-winning animator Marc Craste, in 2007, and has since rolled out more than 30 different spots using the approach.

Headquartered in London, Lloyds TSB has over $1 trillion in assets. The bank claims to be the first in the UK to respond to customer queries through Twitter.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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ASB Bank, a large Aussie-owned bank in New Zealand, showcases its new casual personality on an employee's business card. The conversational tone is part of a massive rebranding effort the bank undertook in 2010.

By Ben Fahy via NZ Marketing Magazine

The move of ASB Bank from TBWA\Tequila, its agency of over ten years, to Droga5 was one of the year’s most captivating stories in New Zealand marketing. Not surprisingly, there’s been plenty of interest as to what Droga5′s Andrew Stone, Mike O’Sullivan, Jose Alomajan and the team would come up with. Well now you can now judge for yourself, with a massive refresh of the bank’s brand identity, and a new positioning slogan, “Creating Futures.”

Stone believes this is the biggest brand transformation he’s seen in New Zealand since BellSouth became Vodafone. It’s certainly more than just another bank campaign and the new, personal, cheeky and fairly Kiwi brand voice that has been developed will be implemented across all touchpoints, from fax headers to outdoor ads, from the copy in the terms and conditions to the television commercials, from the redesigned and simplified online banking site to the ATMs, from the business cards to the staff t-shirts. ASB’s signature yellow color has been retained, but it’s changed slightly, as have the fonts.

Stone also said a strategic review of ASB’s business led to 14 separate initiatives being tabled. The brand — and making it relevant for the next decade — became a top priority, along with branches, IT and products/services.

The main brand tenets — and the things ASB wanted to focus on — were truth (always a tough sell for a bank), simplicity and humor. And not just in its communications either, but rather across the whole business. To do this, one of the key themes in the new campaign is based on the phrase ‘unbanklike,’ something the client picked up during initial brainstorming sessions and chose to run with.

Looking at the end result, ASB doesn’t really feel like a large bank. There’s a fairly whimsical tone to the work and it almost has the feel of something a small boutique ad agency would come up with for its own brand, with quirky business cards, jokey first person ads, localized outdoor ads and a big yellow ‘Hello!’ welcoming customers to the new (and as yet unlaunched) website. There is an occasional hint of twee with some of the executions, but overall it seems to hit the mark and achieve its goal of creating a point of difference.

ASB general manager of brand and marketing Deborah Simpson said feedback from customers about the role their bank should play in their lives was pivotal to the development of the new campaign. “Our customers have been telling us they want their bank to look behind their transactions, to deepen the relationship between us by understanding and forming connections with their aspirations and dreams,” she said. “‘Creating Futures’ answers this call.”

She said there has always been “quite a bit of air” between ASB and the other large banks (ASB regularly outperforms its competitors when it comes to customer service, and has 11,000 fans on Facebook, which seems quite impressive). But that gap is closing, something Simpson believes is as a result of competitors replicating ASB. This massive brand relaunch is about finding a way to increase the gap once again.

After a reconnaissance mission to unearth interesting stories from ASB staff, eight narratives were selected for use in TV spots. When the staff were asked what they did, it was often process based, such as “I lend money.” But Droga5′s Stone says this campaign is a new lens through which to look at their roles and give them some context to show they help people. The campaign acknowledges each employee’s potential to be a powerful advocate.

“These are authentic situations we address with our customers every day,” Simpson said. “So using our ASB people rather than professional actors in front of the camera to portray the part they play is not only logical but also the right thing to do. The stories people see are a reflection of ASB itself: human, genuine, strongly service oriented and future-focused.”

ASB BANK – IVF
This is a heart-wrenching spot about a couple’s desire to conceive. ASB saves the day with a fertility loan.

ASB BANK – SHEEP
A boy learns the proverbial lesson in this TV spot: you can sheer a sheep many times, but you can only skin it once. (Apparently you can’t make an ad campaign in New Zealand without including sheep.)

To ramp up employee engagement, 160 ASB staff auditioned to feature in the ads and 70 were given acting roles.

The first commercial deals with the fairly intimate issue of fertility, showing that ASB can help out with funding for an in vitro fertilization treatment. The second is a sheep-based celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit ASB claims to find in its customers. The initial spots were directed by Flying Fish’s Gregor Nicholas, and features original music from the composers at New Zealand’s Franklin Rd.

“Our people have been saying, ‘You’ve really nailed it. You’ve really you’ve shown what makes ASB, “ASB,”’” Simpson said.

She said research conducted earlier this year showed that “customers didn’t want to hear about us, they wanted to hear about what we could do for them.”

“We’re telling real stories but in an entertaining way and speaking to our customers in a way they can identify with,” she continued.

“The research showed that most banks talk about themselves. There’s a lot of chest beating about what they can do,” added Stone.

This doesn’t quite seem to mesh with the rampant use of the word “I” throughout the commercials, however.

All spots will be housed on ‘The Hub,’ an interactive page on the ASB website that Stone labels a first in New Zealand. The first three spots will be available online before they all go live on TV, something intended to be a reward for heading to the new site.

Notice where the login/password section of the site is positioned. It's the hero of the homepage, not tucked off in some corner.

Even memos got a makeover. Notice the casual, personal style.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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According to the latest data Ally Bank has available, 40% of the financial institution’s target audience is familiar with the brand. 29% say they know something about the brand, while another 27% report having a fair- to significant amount of knowledge about the bank.

How has the bank achieved these impressive awareness numbers? They didn’t do it with PR or flash mobs or social media. They did it with a good old fashioned advertising strategy that includes TV, radio, online and — gasp! — even print.

Ally spent $25.8 million on advertising in the first half of this year, on top of more than $95 million in 2009, according to Nielsen, a media research company.

While there are plenty of marketing analysts who have declared advertising is dead (some have been saying it for more than 10 years), Ally’s success proves the opposite. While advertising’s power to shape people’s perceptions or drive sales might be subject to debate, its ability to create brand awareness is indisputably alive.

There is a classic marketing acronym about how consumers relate to brands: AIDA. It stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. It’s a simple concept, illustrating the step-by-step lifecycle people take on their “path to purchase.” They won’t buy things they don’t want. They don’t want things that don’t interest them. And they can’t be interested in something they’ve never heard of. It all starts with brand awareness.

Reality Check: Rumors of the death of advertising are widely exaggerated. Yes, advertising is evolving and changing (e.g., the shift from print to online), but no advertising is not going away…ever. If awareness is your brand’s problem, then advertising is still the answer.

Can Consumers Really Love A Bank?

Starting in September, Ally began running a new ad campaign built around the love customers have for the nascent brand. In the campaign’s first TV spot, “Interview,” a young man on an interview tells his prospective employer about his life interests.

Interviewer: “Impressive resume.”

Job Seeker: “Thank you.”

Interviewer: “Now tell me, what makes Peter ‘Peter’?”

Job Seeker: “Well, I’m an avid catamaran sailor. I can my own homemade jam — apricot. And I really love my bank’s ‘Raise-Your-Rate’ CD.”

Interviewer: “I’m sorry, did you say you’d love a pay raise ASAP?”

Job Seeker: “Umm, nah actually I said I love my bank’s ‘Raise-Your-Rate’ CD.”

Interviewer: “You said eight days lost at sea?”

Job Seeker: “No, I never…”

Interviewer: “You love watching your neighbors watch TV?”

Job Seeker: “Nnn…”

Announcer: “At Ally, you’ll love our Raise Your Rate CD that offers a one-time rate increase if our current rates go up. Ally. Do you love your bank?”

ALLY BANK – “INTERVIEW”

There are two other TV spots that play with this quasi-rhyming creative device, where people react with disbelief and incredulity towards the notion that someone can actually love their bank. In one spot, “Studio,” the lead singer of a death metal rock band sings about loving his bank, when his producer cuts in: “It’s not really raging, man.”

In “Rufus,” a woman’s date looks at her as if she was crazy while she asks her dog, “Who do we love? We love our bank.” She slips into goo-goo-ga-ga baby talk, “We lovve our bank, mmmm yes, yes baby.”

“The overall theme of the campaign is that you actually can love your bank, and our customers are proof of that,” said Travis Parman, Director, Community and Public Relations at Ally Financial. “Now that customers understand what Ally Bank stands for, we can reflect on the success we’ve had and the value proposition we offer. We will focus on what existing customers are saying they love about Ally Bank to reach out to those who haven’t tried us yet.”

“The new ads reflect the success of the bank and the sentiment we’re hearing from our enthusiastic customers — that we think its possible to love your bank given the right reasons,” the bank says.

Ally’s customer satisfaction statistics from July 2010 show that 90.8% of existing customers are “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied,” and 89.5% would recommend the bank to a friend or family member. Since the bank rebranded to Ally, it has seen an increase in retail deposits for six straight quarters.

“We hear from happy customers every day in social media and through customer service chat and phone calls,” said Sanjay Gupta, CMO/Ally Bank. “Our approach has clearly resonated.”

“Our positive customer feedback and interaction are proof that customers can love their bank,” Gupta continued.

“That someone can talk positively about their bank is unusual,” Gupta told the NY Times. “Most of the time, you don’t find that.”

The new approach is “perhaps not in the same vein” as the first campaign, he added, but it is “still allowing us to highlight key, salient points that make us different.”

Ally Abandons Funny Approach with Kids and Tricks

Ally’s first campaign starred kids who were tricked and deceived by evil Mr. Disclaimer. Spots like the one with the girl who scowls when she doesn’t get a real pony and the boy who can’t play with the red truck have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.

But a few months ago, Ally decided it was time to bid adieu to the funny campaign.

“We want consumers to think about banking differently — more critically,” Parman said. “The previous ads highlighted what are typically considered pain points in banking and showed that Ally Bank doesn’t follow those practices. The new set of ads asks customers to think about whether they love their bank, and if not, why not.”

Ally, who has built its brand around themes like honesty and transparency, ran into trouble earlier this year when the bank stood accused of robo-signing foreclosure documents. Did the bank dump its former campaign, which portrayed banks as deceptive cheaters, in reaction to its potentially fraudulent foreclosure practices?

“No, there is no correlation. As you know, it takes months to develop a new campaign,” Parman said.

Ally’s previous campaign had received some criticism for its treatment of children, but the bank denies any connection with decision to roll out new ads.

“The positive reception to those ads heavily outweighed any negative comments we received,” Parman said.

Ally also says it is not replacing its “Straightforward” tagline with the current campaign slogan, “Do You Love Your Bank?”

‘”Straightforward’ is a brand pillar of Ally Bank and a philosophy that you’ll see demonstrated in products and service and will remain as a guiding theme,” Parman told The Financial Brand. “’Do You Love Your Bank?’ is the theme of this ad campaign and not the new slogan.”

The new campaign, created by ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, will push the “love” theme out across TV, radio, print and the web. Online ads will include actual customer comments about their positive experience with the bank.The new campaign, is scheduled to run into early 2011, but there is no firm timeframe for its duration.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Strange orangutan replaces Scottish funny man as the official face of ING DIRECT Australia

ING DIRECT Australia has dumped comedian and longtime company pitchman Billy Connolly and replaced him with an orangutan named Charles.

In the campaign’s inaugural TV spot, the primate sports an orange fur and a fluffy coiffure while discussing how ING DIRECT makes him comfortable enough to get naked. The spot opens on an ape pecking away at his Apple laptop while he banks online. He stops, looks up and says, “Oh, hello. Charles. You know, when you’re with a bank that always treats you fairly, you get this enormous confidence boost. I mean I’m on national TV…naked.” To illustrate his point, Charles looks down at his thingy suggestively.

ING DIRECT – “CONFIDENCE”

Charles may act and sound super sophisticated — even by human standards — but you have to wonder: Do consumers really want to think about an ape’s penis?

An orangutan with a past

Charles isn’t just a primate with a penchant for the provocative. Indeed ING DIRECT has worked up an entire dossier for their new spokesimian. The backstory goes deep. Charles studied environmental science while attending university. He’s a writer, photographer, and observer of humanity who can smile in 37 languages.

Apparently he’s from Melbourne and moved to Sydney five years ago, which is a bit strange since Charles is a pom with an English — not Australian — accent.

He confesses he hasn’t got the whole work/life balance thing sorted out, and he’s not sure he’s “doing this thing called ‘life’ right.” He likes organic food, gadgets, art and friends, and admits he has bad hair days.

“In short,” says Charles, “I’m probably not that different to you.”

Ummm, yeah… except for the orange fur and a few strands of DNA.

Subsite tied to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

The campaign, created by Jack Watts Currie, was launched in late September. Besides TV and outdoor ads, there is a subsite, Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel, all ostensibly maintained and updated by Charles.

There isn’t a whole lot going on at the subsite (not that there needs to be). There is an “About” page, links to a couple of the bank’s core products and the usual social media networking tools. Mostly, the subsite looks like it’s being used as a landing page to count clicks and track campaign web traffic — a “virtual turnstile.”

The YouTube channel has one ad for the bank’s Savings Maximiser product (the “naked” spot has been removed). There are also a couple videos showing a street team — “Charles’s Angels” — picking up people’s tab at bars, restaurants and cafés around Syndey, courtesy of Charles. The videos are slick compilations of clips with grateful Aussies saying things like “thank you Charles,” “I love you” and “you’re a legend mate!”

The Facebook page for Charles uses a similar approach as E*Trade’s talking baby. Charles sends humorous (if not irrelevant) updates about the goings-on in his life. “Can’t believe I didn’t get Lucy’s number,” says one Facebook update, a reference to homo sapiens’ famous ancestor. Another reads, “Tired and emotional now. Time to give pizza chants.” It’s lighthearted for sure, but there are many Twitter users who find such mundane tweets annoying.

There isn’t anything in the @charles_writes Twitter stream that you won’t also find at the Facebook page. Charles double-posts the same information in both his tweets and his status updates, which may explain why the Twitter account has fewer than 100 followers while the Facebook page has over 800 fans.

Only about one in every ten things Charles has to say includes an offer or comment with any relevance to banking. Most of the stuff Charles shares are random, miscellaneous thoughts: “Humans confuse me sometimes. Why do they park on driveways and drive on parkways?”

Reaction ranges from “creepy” to “creative”

Public reaction to the naked simian ranges from “creepy” to “funny,” with more people leaning towards the “creepy” camp. When an Australian advertising blog covered the campaign, readers’ comments about Charles included adjectives like “bizarre,” “disturbing,” “strange,” “scary,” “unlikeable” and “WTF?”

Some Aussies are nostalgic for ING DIRECT’s previous spokesperson. But it’s not that the TV ads with Scottish actor/comedian Billy Connolly were amazingly awesome so much as they just weren’t as weird.

Key Takeaway: Anyone can make an ad that gets noticed by doing something strange or unusual. Not everyone can build a great brand by differentiating in a relevant way.

What do you think? Is Charles on-brand for ING DIRECT? Or is he just a gimmick?

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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“The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

That’s what RollingStone recently wrote in an article about Goldman Sachs. Now Goldman is trying to lift its tarnished brand from the gutter of public perception with a new ad campaign.

“How a plan to help a renewable energy company grow…Ended up creating more than just megawatts,” the campaign’s copy states. “Progress is everyone’s business,” continues the headline, followed by the rest of the ad’s copy, which reads:

“Harnessing an important resource like wind requires a lot of capital. So when a renewable energy company came to us, we found investors to help them grow. Because investing in a clean energy future is not only good for the environment, it’s good for local businesses and communities. And for local employees, who have a new way to put their energy to work.”

Key Question: What does a wind farm, job creation and “progress” have to do with the myriad of black, nasty issues surrounding Goldman’s bruised and battered brand?

This is the first advertisement in a series to come from Goldman’s agency Young & Rubicam. The campaign is scheduled to continue into next year.

GOLDMAN SACHS – PROGRESS MICROSITE

GOLDMAN SACHS – MAIN WEBSITE HOMEPAGE
Goldman has rethemed its homepage to align with the ‘Progress’ campaign.

Ads are tagged with a URL, goldman.com/progress, that points at a microsite loaded with oblique rhetoric about how progress “starts with a plan, a project, a strategy or an idea.”

“We have a lot of work to do explaining to people what it is that we do,” Goldman’s CEO said on the Charlie Rose TV show six months ago. “And we’re starting from a hole.”

Reality Checks:

• This campaign doesn’t address jack. In the court of public opinion, Goldman Sachs stands accused of financial crimes against humanity, and this is their public response? This is the exact same mistake Swiss banking behemoth UBS made last month with its “We Will Not Rest” ad campaign: When you’ve destroyed people’s trust, the last thing they want to hear is a bunch of bromides and mushy, corporate rhetoric.
• The general public doesn’t care- nor need to know what investment banks like Goldman and Lehman (R.I.P.) do. The only reason an investment bank needs to run a massive ad campaign like this is to send a message to legislators: “See, we’re not evil demons. We fuel the economy, so please don’t mess with us by slapping a whole bunch of new regs on us.”

Experts agree: This campaign won’t work

Jerry Della Femina, CEO of Della Femina/Jeary & Partners in New York, told Bloomberg that the ad was “too weak, too wimpy, too mealy-mouthed” and unlikely to influence those who do not respect or like the bank.

“It just looks like a lot of breast-beating, but doesn’t really get to the heart of how has this company changed in a way that I can find them trustworthy?” Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO of a Manhattan ad agency, told the NY Times. “My verdict is ‘wasted energy.’”

John Ellis at Clusterstock agrees. He calls the campaign “a total waste of money.”

“There is no way to dance around this ‘integrity issue.’ It must be addressed head-on,” Ellis wrote.

Ellis says Goldman is in for a world of hurt when Sony Pictures releases Inside Job, a blistering documentary about Goldman’s role in bringing the financial system to its knees.

One eco-blogger said Goldman’s ad teetered on greenwashing. She isn’t alone. “If I just saw the ad, I might think it was for a utility company,” added Russell Winer, chairman of the marketing department at NYU, in the NY Times.

GS is shoveling B.S.

The public is having a hard time swallowing the message in Goldman’s ads. The general collective attitude is “You can’t fool us.” Predictably, they have turned to the internet to uncork pot shots and snide swipes loaded with incredulity.

One blogger is holding a contest to see who can come up with better ideas for Goldman Sachs’ new ad campaign. He’s already received at least 166 entries, all of them — even the funny ones — are foaming with contempt:

• Goldman Rapes Pillages & Sachs
• Goldman Sachs: We Profit from Your Trust.
• Goldman Sachs: Bankers with the Golden Sacks.
• Goldman Sachs: We’ve never killed any puppies. That you know of.
• Goldman Lying Sachs of Shit
• Goldman Sachs: We Keep the Gold, You Get the Sacks.
• Goldman Sachs: We Put the Zero in the Zero-Sum Game.
• Goldman Sachs: We Put the Douche in Fiduciary.
• Goldman Sachs: We’re Too Big to Fail and You’re Too Small for Us Too Give a Shit About.
• Goldman Sachs: Where’s the Thief?
• Goldman Sachs: “To Serve Man…”

One person wryly suggested Goldman Sachs simply run an ad campaign that said “Thank You.” Quite honestly, it would probably be better than the one that’s running now.

If you want to read more, there’s plenty of vile bile spewing out at an anti-Goldman group at Facebook.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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“Okay, look,” starts one of the spots. “We at Denver Community Credit Union don’t want you to get e-Statements because they save trees or time. That’s why you want to get e-Statements. We want you to get them because they save us money on postage and paper.” The spot goes on to explain that Denver CCU is owned by its members who profit from the savings.

The ads, designed to run on TV, radio, in-branch plasmas and movie screens, were written by Bradley Blue, Denver CCU’s Marketing Manager.

“We ran them on a huge, inflatable movie screen at a big event we put on called ‘Movies in the Park’ and people actually applauded,” Blue said. “It was the only time I’ve ever seen a group of people applaud a commercial.”

It took two tries before the credit union found the right creative execution. The first stab resulted in what Blue described as “cartoonish and ‘Sesame Street’ like.” But the credit union started anew with a fresh video producer who ultimately delivered the finished ads seen here.

Denver CCU – Better Rates & Fewer Fees (2,336 views)

“Okay, look. We at Denver Community Credit Union don’t want you to become a credit union member because credit unions have better rates and fewer fees. That’s why you want to become a member. We want you to become a member because our owners like money. Why can we be so honest about that? Because we’re not a bank. We’re a credit union. Your account with us makes you an owner. So don’t let the bank owners profit off of you. Let you profit off of you. Denver Community Credit Union. In Denver, for Denver.”

Denver CCU – In This to Make Money (2,682 views)

“Okay, look. We at Denver Community Credit Union are in this to make money for our owners and any company that says otherwise is lying. Let me repeat that. Banks and credit unions care most about the money in their owners’ accounts, and will do whatever it takes to make them bigger. Why can we be so honest about that? Because we’re not a bank. We’re a credit union. Your account with us makes you an owner. So don’t let the bank owners profit off of you. Let you profit off of you. Denver Community Credit Union. In Denver, for Denver.”

Denver CCU – eStatements (2,518 views)

“Okay, look. We at Denver Community Credit Union don’t want you to get e-Statements because they save trees or time. That’s why you want to get e-Statements. We want you to get them because they save us money on postage and paper. Our owners get every penny we save, which is just how they like it. Why can we be so honest about that? Because we’re not a bank. We’re a credit union. Your account with us makes you an owner. So don’t let the bank owners profit off of you. Let you profit off of you. Denver Community Credit Union. In Denver, for Denver.”

Many credit unions fall into the trap of building ads solely around “the credit union difference” (not-for-profit, member owned, etc.). Not Denver CCU. Their ads lead with an immediate, tangible member benefit — something relevant and compelling (aka “the real reason”) — then back up the promise with a logical argument about credit union member-ownership (aka “the good reason”). It’s savvy advertising psychology.

New brand voice emerges from blunt bailout honesty

Blue said back in 2008, folks around the credit union were stewing over big bank bailouts, so they harnessed their frustrations and turned feelings into ad copy.

“Most of the material came straight from rants we had in our own department about how much it sucked to sugar-coat things when all we had to do was just be blunt and honest,” Blue explained.

DENVER CCU – UNFANCY POSTCARD

This postcard grew from intra-office rants around the Denver CCU headquarters. The copy reads, “If we got to use $700 billion of your tax money with no strings attached…well, our postcards would be a little fancier, I’ll tell you that much.” Great stuff.

“We got such good response [to the postcard] and had so much fun writing that we started creating TV scripts,” Blue said.

The wildly creative personality behind the production

Denver CCU recruited Jeff Smith-Luedke to do the narration. But this guy is more than just a voice. He’s also a kinetic typographer extraordinaire — a true master of digital video wizardry, and the man who put the pizzazz into Denver CCU’s sassy spots.

If you watch one of Denver CCU’s spots on YouTube, one of the related videos that will pop up comes from Smith-Luedke. Sporting a large nose ring, a cheek piercing and earlobes that have been pierced and stretched, the 27-year old riffs about banks, credit unions and the economy.

“Why, when there’s an option like credit unions, do people go to banks at all? It’s never been a secret that banks f**k us — even before the crisis,” Smith-Luedke says in his video.

His unapologetic use of profanity might not appeal to everyone, but Smith-Luedke has accrued some 18,818 YouTube followers. His f-banks-and-the-economy rant has been viewed some 7,860 times, making Smith-Luedke’s video about credit unions one of the most-watched ever on YouTube.

Blue said Denver CCU wasn’t aware of Smith-Luedke’s internet notoriety. “We had no idea whatsoever that he had achieved some degree of fame for his rants when we hired him,” Blue explained. “We had only seen his work in kinetic typography. We got a lot of extra exposure because the people who follow him all watched it and resent it out.”

He’s certainly one of the more interesting, colorful and unusual philosophers you’ll ever run across (online or otherwise) and not someone you’ll likely soon forget.

“He was fun to work with, that’s for sure!” Blue said.

Where to go from here

Blue said Denver CCU intends to sustain the success it’s enjoying with its new found brand platform. “We are considering a contest to see who can write the best rant about why normally intelligent people would choose another financial institution,” he said. Such a promo would certainly help fuel an energy-filled crowdsourcing campaign, with excellent opportunities for online, video and radio.

“We are also currently working on a follow-up series for loan growth specifically,” Blue said. “But we don’t have the supporting materials yet only because we don’t know where and how these will be run on other media.”

“I’ve had enough requests from other credit unions and leagues that we have begun offering them for a very small fee,” Blue said. The cost? A very reasonable $750, which mostly covers tailoring the ads with a new logo and voiceover.

Blue said he’s also pitched one of the big national credit union trade organizations about taking the campaign national. No response yet though.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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The result? Ultimately, UBS was forced to cough up the names of some of the richest people in America, shattering the highly secretive veneer of Swiss banks and ending the bank’s offshore banking operations for its US clients.

The whole episode left a big, dark stain on the once-venerated UBS brand. Now, the bank is trying to rebuild trust and restore its image with a massive new ad campaign. The new campaign, estimated to cost around US$20 million in 2010, is scheduled to run on TV, in print and online around the world.

Ads feature people who have achieved greatness, while also celebrating the people without whom success may not have been possible.

UBS – “WE WILL NOT REST” TV AD

UBS – “WE WILL NOT REST” BRAND ADS

The accomplishments of notable legends like Neil Armstrong, Muhammad Ali and Amelia Earhart are used to draw an analogy between UBS and its “We Will Not Rest” message.

UBS – “MANIFESTO”

Back in 2009, UBS developed a “Manifesto” to communicate the actions the bank was taking in the wake of the financial crisis. But USB halted all advertising activities in light of what the bank calls “market challenges.”

“The tagline ‘We Will Not Rest’ sums up the philosophy we apply to everything we do,” UBS says. “It’s a promise to our clients to look at all the angles and be unwavering in our commitment to them, their success, and their financial future.”

According to the bank, the We Will Not Rest campaign “conveys the spirit of UBS at all communication levels: a tireless, relentless devotion to our clients.”

“It encompasses the spirit in which we approach everything we do,” the bank says. “It’s our commitment to client relationships, it’s understanding their goals, and it’s leaving no stone unturned and no resource untapped in our effort to help our clients achieve their financial goals.”

UBS is tagging its ads with a URL where visitors would supposedly learn more about the bank’s commitments. Unfortunately ubs.com/wewillnotrest is nothing more than two videos and a podcast, none of which shed any more light on what “We Will Not Rest” means. The bank would have fared better by simply using ubs.com in its ads instead of irritating people with a pointless URL that serves no purpose other than tracking hits generated by the campaign.

UBS – “WE WILL NOT REST” MICROSITE

You’d think you could find some more information about the UBS campaign here…but you can’t. The special web page is pathetically paltry — not even worth a visit.

In the campaign, UBS has completely glazed over the main issue that trashed their brand in the first place: the bank’s betrayal of its customers’ trust by compromising its vow of secrecy. Instead of tackling the problem head on, the bank is trying to soft soap its audience with a tired, hollow cliché that has been rendered meaningless by countless politicians. There’s even a video mocking Obama for the number of times he’s said “I will not rest until…”

Reality Check: If you undermine people’s trust, the last thing they want to hear is a saccharine platitude. Trust is not built — nor restored — by words. Even apologies don’t work; they merely make forgiveness possible. Trust is built one way and one way only: by actions, over time.

After taking a two-year hiatus from advertising, it’s hard to believe this is the best UBS can come up with — trotting out long-dead legends that have been used by hundreds of other marketers over the years? Apparently unable to find anything intrinsically unique about its own brand, UBS has resorted to drafting off the accomplishments of historical figures with rosier associations, coupling images with trite messages.

Bottom Line: This is a muddled, mushy strategy, and not one that’s likely to generate the results UBS is hoping for. If you want a taste of consumers’ initial reaction to the campaign, take a look at the harshly critical comments here at the Huffington Post. It’s not that UBS can’t- or shouldn’t be running ads right now…just not these ads.

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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“Unbanking” isn’t necessarily the opposite of “banking.” It’s a philosophical rejection of those (frustrating) things that often plague consumers’ banking experiences. In this day and age, when bankers are reviled more than big tobacco lawyers, it’s easy to understand why a financial institution would want to distance itself from the nasty taint of big banks. Many banks and credit unions looking to keep Wall Street at arm’s length simply go negative and bash the snot out of competitors. The message behind most anti-big bank campaigns isn’t more complex than “We don’t have a jet.” So what?

But “unbanking” creates this same kind of separation and engenders the exact same sentiment in a much more engaging, evocative and positive way. “Unbanking” lets a financial institution say “We’re not like big banks” without having to dwell purely on banking’s ugliness. And heck, let’s admit it…it’s just more fun than dragging the other guy down.

So join The Financial Brand, take a look at how a few credit unions using the concept of “unbanking” in their marketing.

Harborstone Credit Union

Harborstone is one of the oldest retail financial institutions to use “unbanking” in its marketing, and quite possibly the first. The credit union first introduced the word back in 1993, then received an official USPTO trademark for “The Unbank” in 1994. If they wanted to, they could probably create a mountain of legal problems for any other financial institution who may be tempted to use “unbanking.” It appears, however, that as long as no one treads on their turf, Harborstone seems content to share its trademark with others.

The credit union still actively uses “unbanking” today. Its slogan, “Choose the Unbank,” is central to a current ad campaign, and they even have a microsite: choosetheunbank.com.

Northwest Georgia FCU

This credit union uses “Un-banking, Unbelievable” as a tagline that anchors all its marketing materials. But they didn’t stop there. Their entire creative platform is built around “un,” Headlines incorporate just about every “un” word under the sun: “Undeniable,” “Unmistakable,” “Understatement,” “Unexpected,” “Unshaken,” “Unsung,” “Unreal,” “Understood,” “Unafraid.” The ad agency, Third Degree Advertising, describes the work as “un-corporate, un-stuffy, and a little bit unexpected.”

NORTHWEST GEORGIA CREDIT UNION – UNBANKING. UNBELIEVABLE.

“From hard hat wearers to do-it-all homemakers. To say you work hard is an Understatement. So why are you playing games with a financial institution that doesn’t work as hard for you? Get Unstuck with a not-for-profit credit union that helps folks and families like yours to hang on what you’ve already hard-earned. Unbank with Northwest Georgia Credit Union. Where the difference is unmistakable. Northwest Georgia Credit Union. Unbanking. Unbelievable.”

Connex Credit Union

This is another credit union that takes its unbanking seriously. They have an unbanking microsite (www.unbanknow.org), a toll-free unbank “emergency hotline,” and their slogan is “Unbank with us.” They have unbanking ads promoting Unbank Checking, call themselves “the unbank,” and have various unbanking messages splattered throughout their primary website. They even set out to recruit a Gen-Y summer intern with the lofty title “VP of Unbanking.” Note the use of a bloated, slab-face “U” as a graphic design element in some pieces.

Fed Choice Credit Union

The first section in this credit union’s “About Us” page is a section titled “The Un-Bank,” where they define their unsurpassed experience, uncommon benefits, unbelievable convenience and unbeatable service. Fed Choice is also using the “un” concept in ads.

People’s Trust FCU

“Happy Un-banking” is the slogan this credit union uses to deliver marketing messages with a little levity. They have a design style and overall copy tone that appropriately matches their tagline.

Fort Financial FCU

Fort Financial uses the tagline, “Unbank Your Life.” The credit union decided to secure an official USPTO trademark on the slogan in October 2009. Except for tacking the tagline onto marketing materials, it doesn’t appear that they explore unbanking and what it means in any great depths.

SkyOne FCU

There isn’t much material from SkyOne available freely on the web, but the credit union is clearly taking the “unbank” message to the market. Using the tagline “Unbank Yourself,” SkyOne runs with the “un” theme in headlines, although they’ve added a twist. Instead of using the predictable “un” words, they’ve opted to coin some new and rather creative verbs. SkyOne’s loan offers invite consumers to “unhide the fees,” “unmuddle the terms,” “unlimit your rewards,” “unaccept excessive penalties,” “unhike the loan rates,” “unwaste your time,” “unpeddle the pricey extras,” “uninvolved the middleman,” “unraise your payments.” It’s a fresh angle and good copy.

Federal Savings

At one point in time, a company called Federal Savings used “The Unbank” as its slogan. Apparently they were indeed an “unbank”… they were fraudsters offering CDs with a bazillion-percent APY.

The Unbank Company

This Minnesota-based check-cashing store has been in business since 1984. You’ll notice in the photo below that it is right next door to its sister company, “The Unloan” store. It’s shocking that Harborstone Credit Union, who holds a USPTO registration for “The Unbank” would let this slide.

unbank.com

The much-coveted URL unbank.com belongs to a bank who couldn’t care less about the whole “unbanking” thing. University National Bank in Kansas has owned the savory domain since 1996. Some people might confuse this with the “U.N. Bank,” which doesn’t exist – the United Nations calls it the World Bank. There is, however, a U.N. credit union (unfcu.org).

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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Connex Credit Union in Connecticut, whose slogan is “Unbank With Us,” is hosting a contest for a paid internship with a grand title, “Vice President of Unbanking.”

Amy Stanton, AVP/Marketing at Connex, said the role is “essentially a snazzy name for a marketing intern who will represent all things Connex in the young community around our branches.”

An attractive, one-page microsite provides a simple and excellent overview of the position’s selection process and what candidates need to do for consideration.

Applicants who feel they would be a dynamic, outgoing Gen-Y spokesperson should send their resume along with a brief video explaining why they think they would be the Vice President of Unbanking. To stimulate ideas and provide some degree of strategic direction for applicants, Connex makes the following suggestions:

“What is it about traditional banking you don’t like? What makes credit unions different than banks? Would you rather share your profits with shareholders, or have a say in how your money is managed? These are a few ideas to get you started. Get our attention and remember, be creative and have fun with it. Best of luck — we can’t wait to see it!”

The successful candidate will get unique experience in a real marketing environment while getting paid and earning college credits. The VP of Unbanking will help “tell the world all of the great things about Connex and what it means to ‘Unbank.’” The duration of the internship is not specified.

“It’s one of the biggest elements of my work and projects over the next several months and ties in precisely with my task of increasing awareness of ‘Unbanking,’” Stanton continued.

CONNEX CREDIT UNION – VP OF UNBANKING
This brief video, starring the credit union’s current Gen-Y spokesperson,
outlines the basics of the Connex “Vice President of Unbanking” recruitment promotion.

Paul Stull, SVP at Arizona State CU, points out one big snag with contests requiring video submissions: a candidate’s success is often defined by the amount of video production skills they have. “While many contests are designed to pick spokesters or high-profile talent, it seems that a large number of people with great skills may be left behind,” Stull told The Financial Brand.

“It just seems that if you’ve been to film school you have a much better chance at winning,” Stull continued. “This rules out a number of talented people who just don’t know how to express themselves using video.”

“These contests capture the flash, but not the substance,” he said.

VIDEO ENTRY FOR CONNEX VP OF UNBANKING
This candidate may be very well suited for the position, but you’d never be able to tell based on his video entry. He seems like a nice kid, but his video is super boring. Does this mean style supersedes substance?

This article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced.

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