CapitalOne | Personable Brand Voice

Banks and other financial institutions generally don't do a great job of connecting with people through social media. (Amex is the notable exception.) However, CaptialOne does a great job of consistently posting snappy and relatable content on their LinkedIn page. This is a reminder that "serious" businesses can get away with keeping it casual on social media.

SBAB | The Loss Generator

Insight

SBAB has been a state owned mortgage loan company since 1985, and is now on a journey to becoming a “real” bank, with all the bank services offered by the commercial banks. The first step on this journey is to make people start using SBAB for more than mortgage loans. Hence, SBAB offers a savings account with high interest rate, no fees and free account withdrawals. 

The marketing challenge is to increase the number of people opening a savings account with SBAB, and to increase the weekly deposits to these accounts. UM recognised that people have very low trust in banks in general. The four big commercial banks have a market share of 80%+ and are hugely profitable. They offer poor savings account interest rates with restrictions regarding withdrawals. 

SBAB - as a former mortgage loan organisation - is strong in big cities in the mortgage loan category. But its market share for savings account is low, and so is the awareness of SBAB’s offer. However, SBAB is more trustworthy, being a state owned bank without the heritage of poor conditions for saving accounts. 

UM built a strategy focusing on challenging the big commercial banks, comparing the SBAB offer to the other banks. It wanted to explain what low interest rates actually mean to your savings in an easy understandable, challenging and fun way. The overall objective was to increase number of savings accounts, and increase weekly deposits. 

Strategy

UM wanted to build on the fact that the overall trust in the big commercial banks is low. Everyone is aware of low interest rates and high profits among the big banks – still the churn to smaller banks is very low. It’s a low engagement category – and it’s very complex. And even if banking is a very cluttered media category, the big banks don’t advertise savings accounts – for obvious reasons. 

Given this, UM wanted to highlight how much money Swedes lose by having poor conditions on their savings accounts. UM strived to make this tangible, explaining the amount by relating to actual situations. How much money do Swedes lose in a week, a year, while waiting on a bus, while reading a newspaper etc.? 

The agency created “The Loss Generator” on the SBAB website and in social media. “The Loss Generator” is a counter, showing how much Swedes have lost since January 1 by saving money in bank accounts with low interest rates – i.e. visualising the difference to the SBAB offer. At any time you can push “Stop the loss”, and the generator tells you what the loss is worth to date – transferred to what that money would buy; number of cinema visits, entries to the amusement park, etc. 

“The Loss Generator” went out in broad media, always relating to the consumer’s situation; when commuting, when reading a newspaper, when visiting a web site etc. 

Execution

UM aimed to show how much loss Swedes generate by poor savings account conditions through smart use of media:

Dailies: Focusing on Stockholm/Göteborg/Malmö, UM bought three consecutive ads/pages. The first ad said “This second, Swedes lose 499 SEK”, the second “Tomorrow you will have lost 43.099.072 SEK”, and the third “In one year, you will lose (gulp) 15.731.161.388 SEK” 

Outdoor: 
- Bus shelters: “2 minutes to the bus? Then you will lose 59.860 SEK on low interest rates” 
- Underground: UM built a series of ads in the escalators, where the numbers increased: “Every second, Swedes lose 499 SEK on low interest rates”, “Now you’ve lost 2.494 SEK” …etc. 
- Streets: UM used digital Eurosize ads, where they brought out “The Loss Generator” in real time counters on billboards. These street furniture where strategically bought outside or nearby big bank offices. 

Online: Dynamic ads, reflecting the environment, e.g.: “When you Facebook for a quarter, Swedes have lost 449.100 kr. on low interest rates” …etc. 

TV: A generic spot, explaining how much Swedes lose in a year, portraying the commercial banks a profitmaking clowns. 

UM deployed two campaigns like this in 2013; in May/June, and in October/November.

Results

The results in 2013 were beyond all expectations, a pyramidal success. 

- After the first campaign (May/June) the weekly baseline deposits increased by 279% 
- After the second campaign (Oct/Nov) the average weekly deposits had increased by +663%, Q1 average compared to Q4 average. 
- The market share for savings has also increased for SBAB: from 1.84% (Jan-Nov 2012) to 2.69% (Jan-Nov 2013). This is the highest market share increase among all banks… 
- …but the SBAB share of “new” savings money in 2013 is 15%. This means that SBAB is number one in market share for new money – even bigger than the commercial banks, which have a far higher market share of the total savings. 
- In October-November alone, the SBAB market share of new money is 34%! To put this in perspective, the overall market share (all savings) is 2.69%, as mentioned. 
- Number of SBAB savings accounts increased from June 30, 2013 to December 31, 2013 by 24%... 
- …and to total savings amount with SBAB increased by 45% during the same period! 

- Campaign recognition: 46% (finance category average: 30%) 
- Liking: 27% (finance average: 18%) 
- “The campaign is relevant for me”: 36% (finance average: 19%) 

To put the spend level and campaign size into a Swedish a perspective: the SOV for SBAB in 2013 is 8,5%, making SBAB the 5th biggest spender in this category. Hence, the campaigns have been medium sized campaigns. 

The first step on the journey of transferring SBAB into a “real” bank has been highly successful. And the journey continues in 2014, when new services will be launched.

BRAND:

SBAB

CATEGORY:

Financial

REGION:

Sweden

DATE:

May - December 2013

AGENCY:

UM

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Online,Out-of-Home,Print,TV

AXA "The crying House"

http://www.axa.be/pretrenovation/ 
What can you do when a house is so sad it starts weeping and even -- literally -- crying? The AXA renovation loan offers you the opportunity to give it a complete facelift and make it happy again.


Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume Modem, Berchem, Belgium
Creative Director: Geoffrey Hantson
Copywriter: Philippe Blondé
Art Director: Kristoff De Prins
Account Manager: Annelien Orbie
Account Director: Karel Vinck
Production follow-up: Bart Verschueren
Production Company: Ingrid Deuss

Bupa |By You

British insurance company Bupa is running “Bupa By You”, an integrated advertising campaign promoting the adaptable and affordable nature of its health insurance policies. The television commercial at the heart of the campaign focuses on real people in real situations taking part in unexpected activities. 
An older lady who at first appears to be ironing is in fact waxing a surf board. A young man is filmed lifting a child above his head, when at first he seemed to be lifting weights in the gym. ’Bupa By You’ is a natural evolution of the brand’s ’Helping You Find Healthy’ campaign launched earlier this year which demonstrated that healthy means different things to different people. 
The product meets this ambition by providing customers with the ability to personalise their insurance cover to best reflect their individual health needs, priorities and budget.

Credits

The direct response TV advert, direct marketing and digital advertising have all been created by OgilvyOne, London.

Media buying was undertaken by Carat.

Muammar Gaddafi stars in topical ad for Lifebroker

McCann Melbourne has created a tactical campaign for Lifebroker featuring troubled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The ad will run in The Age, The Australian and Sun Herald.
Credits:
Agency: McCann Melbourne
Creative Directors: Julius and Ethal Rosenberg
Planning Director: Felix
Group Account Director: John Bosley
Work Experience Kid: Haley Joel Osment

هاي قلة حيا و سرقه علي عينك يا تاجر من بنك الاسكان.... الله يقرفقوا فضحتونا... السرقه تكون بالعقل مش هيك

هاي قلة حيا و سرقه علي عينك يا تاجر من بنك الاسكان.... الله يقرفقوا فضحتونا... السرقه تكون بالعقل مش هيك...

  اعلان بنك الاسكان المنسوخ

 

Agency: Promoseven Kroma

Client: Future Vision Productions

Director: Bilal Alsurri

Post-Production: Nine Productions

Music: Qasim Sabonji

اعلان فودافون الاصلي

 

Union Insurance - The Pink Squad.

Objective: Launch Union Insurance company as the 10th car insurance company on the market of mandatory car insurance.

The challenge was how to engage people and attract their attention towards the brand while being in a low involvement category in which the price of the product is the main differentiator.

Solution: the first part of the campaign we created a sort of secret organization that took justice on the roads into its own hands. The Pink Squad a movement against irresponsibility on the road. The media were offered a story of a"Vigilante", who in his own specific way punishes irresponsibility on the streets. In the moment, when The Pink Squad and their actions became known nationwide, we connected them with Union and its products.

Too much SM leverage ...Banking services via Facebook

I always said that social networks would be able to host any content or service, and I know some "banks 2.0" (see Prosper and wasabi), but a traditional bank that migrated the answering service, for example, a social network, is a big surprise.  ASB Bank of New Zealand.

In the bank's Facebook page, surfers can speak to employees in real time via a private chat.Still possible to request information about bank loans, savings, and learn how to make currency exchange rates for travel.

The bank guarantees confidentiality of conversations and provides care seven days a week from 8 hours to 21 hours. 

One last thing, for those who in the process of starting a website.. think again??

Lugarcerto| Hooooooooomes

Many, many offers in real estate.

Advertising Agency: Filadelfia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Creative Director: Dan Zecchinelli
Art Director: Ricardo Matos
Copywriter: Leandro Neves
Published: February 2010

Lugarcerto| Scroll bars

The real estate you're looking for is at lugarcerto.com

Advertising Agency: Filadelfia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Creative Director: Dan Zecchinelli
Art Director: Ricardo Matos
Copywriter: Leandro Neves
Published: February 2010

Sama Beirut | The tallest skyscraper rising above Beirut

Advertising Agency: Impact BBDO, Lebanon

Bank sponsors advertorials to educate Saudis about home loans

Al-Rahji Bank has been doing something interesting: sponsoring advertorials that educate Saudi newspaper readers on what to expect when applying for a home loan. The advertorials provide general information, rather than a promotional message. Al-Rajhi wants to ensure that people seeking home loans are well-informed on the complexities before visiting the branch—a smart move given how poor customer service is here in Saudi. Once an ad has motivated customers to visit the bank, they can’t rely on sales staff to provide much help.

HSBC| YouTube Channel

Check out the site: http://www.youtube.com.br/hsbc
A reindeer needs to recover a yo-yo that falls within the seekbar of YouTube for Christmas to happen.


Advertising Agency: Midia Digital, Curitiba, Brazil
Creative Director: Juarez Zaleski
Copywriters: Fernando Christo
Art Director: Dagmar Nesi
Production: Open The Door
Aired: December 2009

Cellphones banking

Cellphone overtakes PC for banking

JOHANNESBURG:- The number of people banking from their cellphones has exceeded that of people banking from their PCs in South Africa, with more than a quarter of bank customers turning to their cellphones for services ranging from informational transaction types such as balance enquiries to financial transaction types which include account payments.

This was one of the key findings from the consumer phase of the Mobility 2009 research project, released today by leading market research organisation World Wide Worx. The study was backed by First National Bank (FNB), leaders in cellphone banking in Africa, and Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry solution.

“It is encouraging to see that not only in FNB, but across the country, cellphone banking is now part of people’s lives,” says Len Pienaar, CEO, FNB mCommerce.

The Mobility 2009 study is being conducted in four phases, with the first three looking at the use of mobile technologies by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Consumers and Corporations, and the final phase exploring the Mobile Internet. In the second phase, announced at a press conference today, it was revealed that, while 16% of banking customers in South Africa use the internet for banking, 28% use their cellphones. A total of 34% of banking customers use one or both of these channels. Outside of the branch and ATMs, only 6% relying exclusively on the internet, while 18% rely only on cellphone banking.

“The fact that services like cellphone banking are taking off so strongly shows that consumers no longer see their cellphones only as voice and text messaging devices, but use them stay in touch with everything that matters in their business and personal lives,” says Deon Liebenberg,Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa at RIM. “With a device like a BlackBerry smartphone, you have immediate access to financial information, your accounts and banking services while you are on the go, wherever you are.”

The study revealed that the main services driving cellphone banking were balance enquiries and notifications of transactions, with three quarters of cellphone bankers using these features. Just under half view statements on their cellphones, 35% transfer between accounts, and 28% pay accounts on their cellphones. In contrast, only 8% add beneficiaries via the cellphone, indicating both security concerns and set-up issues.

“Our research shows that South Africans are becoming comfortable with cellphone banking, but precisely half of general banking customers are still nervous of it, citing trust as their major concern,” says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx. “However, this concern must be seen in the light of 34% also saying the issue is not knowing how to use the service.”

“Although we have made great inroads, two-thirds of banked people still don’t use electronic channels, other than an ATM,” says Pienaar.

At the same time, two thirds of cellphone banking users were satisfied with the security of the channel. This suggests that, once customers start using cellphone banking, they grow increasingly confident in both security and usability aspects.

“We have seen this rapid adoption driven by our USSD menu service, although I believe that WAP will start to play a more important role in future,” says Pienaar.

Liebenberg adds: “The success of cellphone banking shows that there is a strong demand in South Africa for powerful and easy to use mobile data services and applications that help people to save time and stay in control of their lives at all times. With mobile penetration at more than 114% in South Africa, we can expect to see the adoption of mobile banking and other personal services and applications ramp up quickly.”

The study also shows purchasing via the cellphone beginning to take off, with 24% of cellphone banking customers purchasing prepaid electricity and 21% making general purchases like movie tickets and flowers. Purchase of airtime still leads the way here, accounting for 61% of cellphone banking users.

Mobility 2009 included research among 1,000 consumers in metropolitan areas, 1,000 SMEs and 240 large enterprises in South Africa. - 3 November 2009

In a nutshell:

Services driving cellphone banking:

• Balance enquiry: 74%
• Notifications: 73%
• Buying airtime: 61%
• Statement/mini-statement: 48%
• Notification of account limit: 47%
• Transfer funds between accounts: 35%
• Pay accounts: 28%
• Buy pre-paid electricity: 24%
• Make a purchase: 21%

AXA Insurance company[France]| EVOLUTION

Tronic conceived, directed and animated this spot to address the desire to remain relevant in a constantly advancing world. The spot highlights the rapid evolution of mankind by showcasing an origami man transforming himself into some of the most important inventions throughout history. Ending with a question mark and a resolve on the AXA logo, the spot informs the public that the future is uncertain – but AXA is present now and through any changes to come.

ANZ|"We live in your world"

With six million customers and 35,000 employees across the world but primarily in Australia and New Zealand,ANZ (or Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, for long) is one of the top fifty international banking and financial services groups in the world and certainly one of the top banks in Australia and New Zealand, now with its sight set to expand on Asian markets. After conducting a reportedly "record amount of research — 1550 interviews in seven countries in three successive waves," ANZ began rolling out a new identity and advertising campaign over the weekend, both created by the Auckland, New Zealand office of M&C Saatchi and its internal identity design group Re.

With the tag line "We live in your world" the TV campaign and the logo itself revolve around the idea of people. While the TV ad is kind of charming and captures the essence of people and their banking worries, the logo is quite disappointing in all aspects. The old logo had that vintage patina that becomes endearing over time, and it had a nice depth to it with the white stripes playing a nice game in the "N" but it wasn't anything fantastic. The new typography strips everything that was remotely interesting about the old one — the multiple lines and the italics — and all that is left is a set of unsightly letters.

The three shapes in the new signage reflect ANZ's three core markets — Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific - while the central human shape represents customers and staff.
— News.com.au

The icon has what appears to be the leftovers from Cingular knocked out of three random shapes that, all together, form a very strange alien-like form. The shapes of the icon have no reference to the typography and the overall lock-up is downright unpleasant. Unfortunately, the whole thing looks like bad 1980s bank identity work and for a financial organization going head-first into the twenty-first century into new markets, there is no sense of innovation to be found.
To boot, the "logo" has been reported as costing $15 million and, as usual, the media has had a field day in mocking that amount. As we all know, this is the cost of rolling out the identity and implementing.

We Live in Your World, focuses on the complexity of life and the need for a simpler banking system. The campaign introduces a blue logo suspended above the heads of ANZ customers, symbolizing the simplification of their busy and cluttered lives.

“In this day and age, there is a problem we all share -- everything that was meant to make our lives simpler, seemingly made it more complicated. As the world becomes more complicated, it’s no surprise you want simpler banking. Banking that understands the importance of your time. Especially your free time. One that brings banking to your fingertips in more convenient ways you never knew you needed. How do we know you want a bank that listens, simplifies and delivers uncomplicated solutions that are shaped around you? We live in your world.”

Credits

The We Live In Your World campaign was developed at M&C Saatchi, Melbourne, by executive creative director Tom McFarlane, creative director Steve Crawford, head of art Murray Bransgrove, copywriter Doogie Chapman, art director Connor Beaver, copywriter Ben Keenan and agency producer Karen Muxworthy.

Filming was shot by director Christopher Riggert via Radical Media with producer Julianne Shelton. Editor was Stewart Reeves at Guillotine, Sydney. Post production was done at Fuel VFX. Music was produced at Song Zu