CommBank marketing chief: ‘thanks for ambushing us’
Can't Greenpeace ambush
Andy Lark, the marketing director of CommBank, has thanked the three brands that ambushed the banking giant’s ‘Can’t’ teaser campaign.
CommBank was revealed to be behind the campaign yesterday.
Lark, who joined CommBank from Dell in June last year, said that he had expected guerilla activity around the ‘Can’t’ teaser, which has “added fuel to the fire” around the campaign.
He told Mumbrella:
What all three did was amplify interest and excitement for Can’t. This is exactly what we wanted and anticipated. They added fuel to the fire and sparked interest. So, we owe all three a ‘thanks’.
None of them had any impact on our launch but I hope Greenpeace was able to get some benefit from jumping on the momentum Can’t had. The fact that ANZ supported our campaign was interesting – the other major banks probably took the approach I would have chosen. And Heritage showed the spunk you’d hope to see in a small player.
In short, zero downside and all benefit for us. The market is vibrant and the fact marketers are willing to say “Can” at times like these is a good thing.
Heritage Bank was the first advertiser to ambush ‘Can’t’, with a Google key words buy.
ANZ followed, using Twitter to capitalise on the Can’t teaser.
Then Greenpeace entered the fray, launching a press campaign in commuter free sheet mX.
The green group also bought Google key words and re-skinned its Facebook page and website.
The ‘Can’t’ teaser came about a month after BlackBerry’s ‘Wake Up’ teaser campaign, which was not ambushed by a single advertiser. However, youth hostel Wake Up! Central Sydney did see an uplift in traffic as a result of confused backpackers thinking the hostel was responsible.
Is this marketing?
Commbank want’s to remove can’t from our vocabulary?
Honestly I cannot believe real marketing dollars were spent on this campaign.
If I was ever considering using the CommBank for anything this single marketing campaign has soured me on the brand
This is an example of a brand that has no real connection with its customers, does not understand customer intentions in anyway and is happy to alienate its existing customers by patronizing them.
I am sure that the majority of consumers exposed to the campaign are still unsure of what it means and what brand it is associated with
AWFUL
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I just thought they’d misspelled a name they call their customers….
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I was wondering what all those “Can’t” billboards were all about. My wankometer is running off the scale.
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all I remember about this campaign, is the word can’t……what is going on with that horrible bit of prose? You can remove one letter or add replace another…I am pretty sure that this Campaign will be remembered for all the wrong reasons..
dumb idea, horrible execution
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The campaign reminded me of this classic ad the moment I saw the first poster. http://craigashleyrussell.com/.....than-cant/
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so it’s a bank. meh..
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CAN’T view the website from outside AU….epic fail
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There’s a bit of irony going on with the Commbank “Can’t / Can” campaign.
I usually CAN browse SMH and other Fairfax properties, but with the woefully-coded Flash ads being served, I absolutely CAN’T do any browsing at all (on a higher-end laptop purchased a few months ago).
I noticed this when my wife attempted to browse domain.com.au last night with the same Flash ads running. A quick check of cpu usage: absolutely maxed out with the flash ads running.
That quickly led to installation of flash block to stop serving of any ads. I wonder how many others across Australia are doing that while this campaign runs?
Considering the dire situation news organisations are in it’s just mind-boggling that there’s no quality assurance at Fairfax to ensure badly-done ads don’t completely kill all their web properties. Although no-one’s ever accussed Fairfax of having a clue when it comes to digital, have they?
Anyway a win all round for both Commbank and Fairfax when it comes to CAN’T.
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Loving the Commonwealth Bank’s new ‘CAN’T’ campaign. In fact, that was their exact response to my request for bridging finance a while ago. CAN’T.
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“This is exactly what we wanted”. Nice way to cover your behind…. Isn’t this exactly what Corey Worthington said when he had some gate crashers ?
The only winners in this campaign are media owners, who love taking money from sh it house marketers for teasers & brand spots like this. This will generate no sales or build any brand benefit.
CBA better make sure their customer experience can support this campaign. Otherwise I foresee a lot of customers going to social media to say what CBA “can’t do”.
Determined to be different and now this – guys don’t forget your a bank….
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Is the Commonwealth Bank’s “CAN’T” campaign ostensibly different from American Express’ “IMPOSSIBLE” campaign?
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Really comm bank….you can? All I remember hearing from you is CAN’T!!
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I can’t find the myspace page on the interweb.
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My favourite part is “What all three did was amplify interest and excitement for Can’t”
Who exactly (other than the media sales) was excited about this?
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Can. – Can Copy. Well done CBA and the CBA marketers. Lets get a successful Aussie US based Actor to champion our generic products and services. Internal sources tell me the ANZ campaign of not so long ago utlizing the mentalist was an epic fail dollar wise. No doubt CBA’s latest campaign will follow a similar demise. Originality in advertising just seems to be less and less common by the day.
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Anything is better than the woeful “American ad agency / Determined to be different” campaign which would have to go down as one of the worst ad strategies ever undertaken.
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How did such a basic mistake get by so many people who should have known better. When you tease with a single word, that’s what’s remembered – not the next mutation. That’s why Optus once teased with YES. CommBank is now the can’t bank, and there’s nothing they can do about it. And because they’re one of the big-n-greedy four, I’m delighted.
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Me: Hi Comm Bank. CAN I please have a reduction in fees and my mortgage interest rate.
Comm Bank: No; You CAN’T
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Me: Hi Comms Bank. CAN I please have a savings account with higher interest and no fees?
Comm Bank: no; you CAN’T
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Almost as bad as ‘Determined to be different’…
Just because you are determined, doesn’t mean that you ‘will be different’!
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Only a tiny variation in pronunciation to get to how consumers feel about banks…
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What was Toni Collette thinking when she signed up for this campaign (apart from the dollars)? I squirmed in my chair when I first saw it. Cringeworthy and lame.
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No matter how eloquently Toni Collette can deliver the prose, it doesn’t help the fact that this campaign is complete and utter shit. It makes no impression on me in any positive way. I’m irritated and never want to see rubbish like this ever again. I feel for the poor marketing department of the bank who were so blindly duped on this one. Banks should once and for all accept that no amount of brand activity like this can ever detract from the fact that these banks post billions of dollars in profit each year. You can’t change our opinion on greed.
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Seems the CBA is keen to get a slice of the action that NAB enjoyed with the break-up.
NAB’s campaign felt a bit more natural, perhaps this is why it was so successful for the bank?
This attempt by CBA just feels a bit forced. Good on them for having a go, but i think cringeworthy is an appropriate adjective.
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