Wednesday, January 30, 2008

New Commonwealth Bank ad



Plusses
- Pitches the satire precisely - outrageous yet believable
- Beautifully executed
- The rollout strategy was brilliant. The first 30 seconds was leaked over the internet, ostensibly confirming everybody's lowest expectations of Goodby, a US agency, doing ads for Commonwealth, and "iconic" (think that word's maybe just a tad overused?) Aussie brand

Minuses
- The brand promise sucks. "We're different" positionings are so generic as to be meaningless.
- It's not even trying to convince the Commonwealth are different (although that, to be fair, would be a lost cause). It's just telling us that Commonwealth would like us to think they're different. Well guess what, I'd like everyone to think I'm the next Juan Cabral, but telling you that does absolutely zero to persuade you that I am.
- (And this is the kicker) It's not really advertising the bank at all. It's advertising the agency. The whole spot rests on taking the piss out of some adland drama no-one in the real world has even heard about.

So it's not talking to Commonwealth customers at all. It's talking to us adgeeks. And only us.

But hey, at least it's entertaining.

2 comments:

SCART69 said...

This ad series make me sick. A Bank (that forecloses on mortages, overcharges customers & screws people to the wall to make high profit$) use Aussies anger at the US (credit crunch) & distrust of AD Agency’s to make Ads costing MILLIONS (MADE by a very savy Ad Agency) to try & pretend that “they” (the commonwealth bank) are on YOUR side & that they hate big corporations too.

It’s insidious & it’s called the “anti-marketting dollar”. See Bill Hicks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

coffee-cup said...

I agree it was an interesting campaign from a marketing analysis. But the "determined to be different" tag line is just lame. It does nothing from the consumer. The ad doesn't speak to the consumer at all...

And the follow up ads, in the same campaign in the last two years have just been terrible! The shocked customers who "faint" at being contacted by the bank, the badly written "bulldog sketch"- LAME and ridiculous.

I hate commonwealth bank now! ANZ has done a MUCH better campaign.