BOQ rebrands and pushes the local touch
Bank of Queensland will today launch the biggest branding campaign in its 136 year history as it aims to get across the message that its local managers are genuinely in charge – and it is now BOQ.
The repositioning follows an 18 month review of the BOQ brand by the Brand Council.
Daniel Musson, BOQ’s group executive for People and Corporate Services said: “This has resulted in a shift from Bank of Queensland to BOQ and new positioning of ‘your own personal bank’, made possible by our local Owner-Managers. Over the past decade, BOQ has expanded right across Australia with our Owner-Managed Branch model.
“At BOQ, our branches are run by local Owner-Managers. This means they’re running a small business, so they get what it means to deliver personal service. So the campaign will capture the genuinely personal aspect of Owner-Managers, backed by the professional credibility of a bank.”
The new brand campaign, developed by 12:20 and CHE, will roll out across TV, press, outdoor, radio, online and POS. The first TV ad featuring Managing Director and CEO David Liddy will appear tomorrow night, followed by a series featuring stories with local Owner-Managers and customers.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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That is absolute crap. Brandpower ads are more exciting.
And from 12:20?
Wow.
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I really like it. Finally a bank with something to say. And the more competition the better.
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I wonder if the North Ward branch will have owners Carnes and Buchannan interviewed in the TV ad’s? After all it wasn’t so long ago CEO Liddy was urging all owner operated branches to follow the example set by the twice award winning Branch in Townsville which lent about $105M to victims of Storm Financial. Of course it didn’t hurt that the BOQ didn’t have to verify what incomes were submitted on the loan docs, (without the client’s knowledge) and it remains to be seen what will come of the ASIC investigation into BOQ North Ward’s involvment with Storm, and the Slater &Gordon cases against BOQ.
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Hi Been Smoking,
I had a little bet with myself that someone would pile in early and complain about the ads. You won.
In this case, I’d see the more interesting aspect as the repositioning of the brand. And yes the ads are somewhat folksy to say the least, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be right for the strategy.
Defintiely not awards contenders, but I bet they’ll be effective enough.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Tim isn’t this strategy exactly the same one as the St George one – focusing in on the owners/managers of each branch and how approachable they are. Why does copying the exact same strategy of a bigger, competitor ever give you confidence?
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Tim,
Whilst Steve Reynolds comments refer to a particular event, they at least prove what most of us already know; that the owner/manager strategy is nothing new for BOQ. They’ve been wedded to this strategy for the last 4 years at least. I’m sure if it was such a good idea we all would’ve heard at least one person claim BOQ’s better because the guy/girl that runs the branch owns the branch, especially in these hate big bank days. Owner/managers might make them different, but it doesn’t make them any more relevant. I guarantee, one visit to BOQland for a home loan, or any other banking product and you’ll soon find no difference between them and all the other banks. This campaign’s probably more about selling BOQ franchises than actually trying to achieve anything for their customers.
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Well done. I like it. Seems quite genuine without being too try-hard.
On another note, if we were only allowed to do what no-one had ever said or done before, then just about everyone would be doing nothing most of the time.
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This is very real and not the typical polished bank advertising that really doesn’t say too much. Good on BOQ for being prepared to really stand for something. If the owner/manager concept is unique to BOQ (which I think it is), then that’s exactly what they should be talking about. I initially thought they were just a smaller, more friendly version of a big bank. But it makes sense that if the bank manager owns the store, then the service should be better (if that’s what you’re looking for).
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Been smoking – stgeorge/other banks branches are not franchises – major difference. Key point is owner manager – not just manager.
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This is something that could come back to bite you big time… Hope you have checked the credential of everyone of your managers!!!
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Well it’s never going to win any creative awards, but I think it will resonate on the “believability” front (a hard road to hoe for a bank) so will do well I suspect with the punters.
The only thing that made me double-take was that I thought he was saying “POQ” and not “BOQ” … quite apposite for a bank really!
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How original, another big bank claiming that it is anything but. More over-cranked, smiley faces. More repetitive, bland vignettes. More strummity-strum, acoustic musac. All adding up to more interrupting wallpaper.
The press doesn’t do any better, in fact it’s just one big still from the TV with body-copy being taken word-for-word from the script. You need more than a ballpoint pen influenced typeface for the headline if you want to invoke personal service. And if you’re going to sign-off with a hand written font why not hand write them for real or at least spend a little time crafting the typography, now that would be personal service.
Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, maybe the rest of the campaign will be able to demonstrate genuine, interesting and personal insights, We’ll have to wait and see.
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bad creative, bad editing, bad shots.. i hope they did this in purpose so it looks like a low budget local ad… and boring strategy as BOQ has been using it for ages. Brand repositioning? wtf? where do they think they were and do they even know where they’re heading? they’re just saying the same thing in a different way! they’re not repositioning themself, they’re just standing at where they were and waiving a bit harder! lol! the new logo is wrong too… it reminds me of BBQ. lol. so local ay. i think it might work on some small business owners…? i would love to see the result of this so call brand repositioning campaign!!
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I think the renaming is a mistake. And they dont give a meaningful rationale for it which is fishy . BOQ sounds like a DIY store and not a bank. But I think BOQ will find that even though people dont like banks – you need to “be” a bank to be given trust of people’s money and provide financial services with credibility.
The currenmt Westpac campaign “The bank manager is back” I find more compelling and persuasive. the story is presented as news – and frankly most punters couldn’t give a rats if the manager is a franchisee or not. What they want is to be able to ring up their “bank manager” by name and expect said manager to be across their account details and background.
BOQ would do better to focus on delivering that message – which to be fair they’ve done well in the past. Maybe the real reason here is simply that some marketing genius has figure that anything with the name Queensland in it does not travel south of the Tweed.
As Ogilvy said “only in direst of cases should you show the clients’ faces”. Clearly this one was dire indeed.
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Dissapointing as the postioning of owner managed branches is not delivered with the same passion as what it could be.
David Liddy is a great leader for the bank but customers don’t deal with him, they deal with their local manager………so who are they and where are they?
Poor art direction.
Like the logo it is at least contemporary!
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The logo was done by Crawf at Mojo back in 2002.
I find it strange that with such a good product (yes I bank with them) that this campaign isn’t based around amplifying the comments of contented customers (of which there are quite a few). The strategy is right but an old fashion monologue TVC won’t catch people’s imagination. This campaign only talks to those in market now, it won’t leave a lasting impression.
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True the Westpac advertising of late presents a more compelling argument however the reality is far from what they portray – their “new” bank managers have little lending or relationship management experience and have little autrhority to make decisions, save which toilet paper to buy, refund $5 fee and prepare the lunch roster, if only the westpac add was for boq…
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The Owner Manager is a strong positioning and is one of the few real differences in the banking category. I think this is a bold move by BOQ and I hope they stick with it. From what I’ve seen, there’s more to it than the CEO ads. I’ve seen a few with the managers and their customers which are much more compelling than the Westpac ads (which are just scripted). It’s great to see a brand with something newsworthy to say and I applaud BOQ for having a crack. They’re certainly not typically slick ads, but gritty and real which may resonate as people don’t typically believe much that banks have to say!!
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There’s more to this than another bank focussing on the local bank manager as has been suggested. BOQ is a franshise system, so the local bank manager is a small business. But does that actually mean anything to the punter on the street? The trick is to focus on the local managers and communicate why this is better, such as understanding your situation and not changing jobs every 5 minutes.
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Shame that a Queensland company doesn’t use local suppliers in the film industry for their production and post production. Poor form Bank of Queensland, you’re certainly not getting my custom.
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Un-original strategy.
Boring execution.
Yawn.
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If David Liddy is Managing Director & CEO does he take home two salaries?
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Oldest trick in the advertising agency play book; if you THINK you’re about to lose an account, put the MD/CEO in a TVC. If you KNOW you’re about to lose an account, put their wife in.
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I’ve been interested to read the discussion here about this campaign and the idea behind it, but it seems everyone is focusing on the issue from a purely visual perspective or in terms of production. And ignoring the fact they’ve changed their name from Bank of Queensland to BOQ, as well as the potential reasons why – which is a pretty big deal.
When it comes to choosing names – for babies or banks – it’s always difficult. But what’s even more intriguing about this case is that while their campaign is all about being small and personal, their change of name says exactly the opposite.
Firstly, choosing an acronym is the surest way to strip any emotion and meaning from a word. Acronyms typically lack personality and make it hard for people to remember what they stood for in the first place. Which, unfortunately, does not resonate with their new tagline “Your own personal bank”.
Secondly, it’s interesting to think about why they switched to an acronym. The likeliest reasons are more to do with a commercial rather than a creative strategy. They want to put some clear water between the brand and the word “bank”, as well as lose the restrictions that come with geographical tag “Queensland”.
In other words, this isn’t about getting smaller, this is about getting bigger. Much bigger.
So what will it be? A small, local bank with the personal touch? Or, an international institution that hides behind a faceless acronym? Looks like they’re keeping their options open for now.
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At many times during the prebranch opening launches in NSW the Bank and Liddy in particular were advised to consider using the BOQ branding as Bank of Queensland sounded like small time operator centred in Queensland which was dipping its toe into NSW waters to test the temperature.
OMBs were told in no uncertain terms by Liddy that Bank of Queensland branding would only be changed to BOQ over his dead body.No well thought through reasons were even given for this statement.
The qestion needs to be asked how much will the already debt ridden OMBs have to put in their own money to change their brand in their branches to a brand thaey had strongly recommended from day one particularly in NSW, Arguably thing are worse in the West as former Home Building societies were converted to Bank of Queensland livery following the amalgamation of the two entities. Many felt that replacing a local brand with one from Queensland was just plain dumd and so did the customers who marched with their feet.. It’s sad to see that supposedly well run companies still fail marketing 101 and blunder into new markets by acquisition and fail to understand or just ignore local dynamics.
A few words about the so called empowerment of the owner managers – NB Many branches in NSW are not operated by OMBs but by bank staff as so many OMBs have handed the keys bank to the bank as the business cannot be operated profitably.
The vast majority of OMBs with perhaps a small handful have no authority to approve loans of any description. The write loans which are either approved by the system or in many cases by the credit department.
OMBs are not allowed to waive or reverse bank fees without permission from a regional manager.
The difference between a BOQ OMB and a Westpac “empowered manager is that the OMB has to provide all of the funding to operate the business – the Westpac nanager is an employee with no skin in the game.
As neither have any real authority, both rely on their credit departments to approve loans. The credit department therfore becomes god.
A recent business banking application processed by a boq branch in NW Sydney took 5 months and was then rejected???
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Richard Curtis’ and former omber’s comments are worth another read as is Short memory’s comments. This owner/manager strategy wont work because its totally irrelevant and, as ‘former omber’s’ last para proves,unlikely to create the warm and fuzzies between a bank and its customers.
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I’d suggest former omber is just that because …he former peers are the face of this new branding exercise, and I’d suggest they must be successful ones as well.
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The Owner/Manager ads really stand out in the category and are true to what BOQ is all about. They should be applauded for that and not just following the industry with half-humorous stick standard ads that all look the same. Of course, the reality must live up to the promise, but after all that’s what any brand is all about.
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