Ex CommBank marketing boss – sack the agency for their lazy, uncampaignable ads
The former marketing boss of Commonwealth Bank of Australia has opened fire on the company’s marketing position, labelling it shallow and lazy and calling for the company to fire its agency, the US-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
In an article in today’s Australian, Graham Ford who was the CBA’s marketing chief until an abrupt departure in 2003, laid into the bank’s marketing position which was first unveiled more than two years ago. It was unclear in the piece on why Ford, now ROI director at Group Momentum, has chosen this moment to make his views known.
Goodby Silverstein was hired by CBA after a global pitch featuring some of the world’s top agencies led by chief marketing officer Mark Buckman. In his piece, Ford said:
“So what has this high-profile and well-credentialled agency delivered, apart from a significant increase in frequent flyer points? And what exactly was their advertising idea? My guess is it’s something like this: “We will show American advertising experts whose ideas lack knowledge of anything Australian — well, actually anything — to allow us, the CBA, and the CBA staff to stand up for the Australian customer and tell them what the CBA’s fantastic, new and exciting solutions are in a uniquely humorous way.”
In the article, Ford claimed the position of the ads was based on “flawed thinking”.
He criticised BMF, which also works on the account for CommBank, too – describing its work as “scattergun and tactical”.
But he reserved the toughest criticism for Goodby Silverstein saying:
“I feel the work is shallow; the thinking and execution of it is lazy and most damningly, it is not based on, or executed to, a campaignable idea.
“When I was discussing this with a fellow marketer recently, she said her problem with the ads was that she was just waiting for the senior fictional CBA marketer portrayed in the ads to wise up and fire the US agency for serial incompetency. I had to admit I had the same idea for the non-fictional one.”
Buckman declined to comment.
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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OMG – who signs off on campaigns?
As an ex agency, now client side bigknob, I am constantly meeting brand managers, senior brand managers and senior marketing managers who love to blame the agency for the shortcomings of campaigns. Ford needs to pull his head out of his ass and remember that at the end of the day, campaigns belong to clents, not agencies and clients sign off on the creative. Silly boy has done agencies in general a disservice by talking this trash.
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Wow – and CBA are now one of the top 10 banks globally with a strong balance sheet, stonking profit growth and the largest customer base in Australia. Sounds like someone is just trying to get themselves a little PR here. Maybe if the bank was a failure, some of the arguments could hold true but the change to Goodby’s & BMF has been nothing but outrageously successful. Sure some will respond to this with a level of creative skepticism, but they won’t be working on, or have contributed to the most successful bank in Australia.
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I must admit, I’m kind of with you, Perplexed. I never really was a fan of the ads, but can’t argue with their success in the market.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
The BIg 4 Aussie banks have benefitted enormously from the GFC with the Fed Govt $1m bank guarantee. Billion$ poured into the banks because of that decision alone.
Add to that the flight of customers [without $1m] seeking the security of banks during a period of global uncertainty, the difficulty of second tier borrowers being starved of capital therefore forcing bank takeovers of home loan operators and you start to see how good the banks have had it over the last 18 months. THEN they, and we, have all benefitted from the far-reaching and forward thinking, regulatory guidelines introduced by the Howard Govt and you have some idea why Australian banks are doing so well. It has very little to do with their marketing.
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Agree with both of the these comments. I don’t know the man but he seems to have a bit of an ego. eg Trying to take some credit for IKON being voted agency of the year 10 years after he helped found it seems a bit of a stretch.
Plus any campaign that includes 1990’s Home and Away hottie Tempany Deckart is fine with me.
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1st 2 comments that is!
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Follow the money – if what you thought was true then the other four big banks would be in a very similar position to the CBA, which they are not.
Yes all banks received the assistance from a Govt. perspective, but they have not all grown at the same rate, posted the same profits, seen their market cap grow at the same rate. And even if half your argument is true about the flight to security, why did more consumers choose CBA than any other bank in Australia.
Come on, stop being a naysayer and give credit where credit is due.
BTW – I don’t work for the bank or Goodby’s or BMF or IKON.
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Perplexed.
My point is that the banks didn’t need to do any advertising to become more profitable. Banks share of home loans has just gone through the roof during the GFC because the second tier lenders had no money. And as for why the CommBank got a bigger share – well, as customers fled, with their capital to the banks – the CommBank was always going to do better because in many instances there was no choice – it was the CommBank connected to the Post Office at the local store or nothing.
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Follow the money – there was loads of choice. NAB, ANZ, CBA, Westpac, St. George, Suncorp, Bendigo, ING.
I don’t get your point….
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Anyone remember Graham Ford doing a presentation at one of the awards events in the mid-90s during which he said most of the people in the industry aren’t doing their job
(he said something along the lines of “your job is to promote and sell products and services. full stop”).
Ford claimed Australian creatives were overindulged or some such… and that most of the work was creative for creative sake.
At the time B&T and AdNews went mental on it.
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Agree with follow the money.
Working with a smaller lender I’ve seen first hand the conditions which lead to record profits by CommBank. They could have run stills of Ralph Norris asleep under a tree and still pulled off a record year.
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All I can say is expected response from the agency community here. People rarely give credit where credit is due.
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Surely the only thing to do here is to compare it with the other banks, show me the ones which are new, different, impactful etc and then start damning the CBA approach
May the good lord save us from any more images of people from all walks of life to some emotional soundtrack, or images of people having great experiences in their local branch – good work any client that is trying to break the cycle
Of course I have Foxtel IQ and dont really watch the ads anymore…….
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@Perplexed……..learn a little about the 4 Pillars banking legislation in this country before you comment on the “brilliant” marketing by CBA. Agree 100% with Follow the money and Beaudacios.Sounds like the “gag” money clause expired on Ford.
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fo rthe last 2 years no one has talked about any other agency ads. Well done CBA, new and creative ideas work
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Out of all the banking ads, i love CBA’s the most – print and TV. I even look forward to watching their TVCs – even looking it up on youtube – and i don’t do that for any other ad.
Having said that, it’s been 10yrs since I was a CBA customer and i won’t go back there because i was badly stung by unnecessary fees. At the end of the day, advertising play a role, but it’s not as substantial as experience and word of mouth.
After leaving CBA, i went with St George based on other people’s recommendations – and then told as many people as possible, esp CBA customers to make the switch as well. I’m now with NAB due to a homeloan, and i was impressed by their move a few month back to leave their variable rates alone while CBA and Westpac lifted theirs. This move does more to prove to me ways the bank cares about its customers more than any ad campaign will.
NAB should leverage off that move for all it’s worth. So far they’ve done nothing.
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is Beadacious also suggesting that Ralph Norris was asleep under a tree when the marketing department approved the ad campaign?? My marketing mentor said the Yanks and us were united by history, but divided by language and culture, maybe he was right… are the ads an example of reverse cultural cringe?
As for Perplexed, I always thought people only gave credit when they felt confident of sufficient future cash flows to repay debt 😉
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Those combank ads are shithouse.
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that last comment was for the bankers btw
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Mr. Ford lost my attention when he spent the first half of the article delivering his CV.
I’m struggling to recall what was around under his tenure (and may struggle with the current campaigns in 7 years time but I’m commenting in the now and that’s that).
I like the CBA approach (not always the creative) but they are memorable campaigns and have served well to differentiate their “different” position. They work. I also think that at the operational end, CBA are closer to being different than other banks. In a sense, how “different” can they be?
Ford’s motivation is very unclear; maybe it’s jealousy.
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I am disappointed in The Australian for airing a rant which was more self serving and bitter than insightful or accurate.
Whether we like the work or not, The CommBank is going gangbusters and the two agencies picked by Barbara Chapman and Mark Buckman were both named Agency of the Decade.
What’s Graham Ford doing these days anyway?
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Thanks Gezza, i thought she looked familiar (Tempany Deckart)
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Shabangabang!!!
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I love these spots.
Really funny and actually make me wanna consider changing banks just cause they seem to have the right attitude.
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Re the customer service issue raised by Mich – I agree and also left CBA because their service was rubbish time and time again. Changing banks is a real pest but I’m glad I switched (to Victorian Teachers Credit Union) and feel unmoved by this campaign.
Similar problem to Myer – sink all the dollars you want into securing J-Hawk, designer labels etc but until they have staff standing at counters to process sales (contrary to my experience at Myer Doncaster (Vic) last week), it’s a complete waste. I just can’t fathom how they can’t get the fundamentals right to hang these campaigns on.
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Perplexed ….now do you really think that it has been this advertising campaign that is solely responsible for the Comm Bank’s current good run of growth and profit strength?
Come on – Australia biggest bank only got richer from the fact that its basically a very cosy market here (four pillars) and the GFC eliminated the entire second tier of competition! ‘Follow the money’ has kindly outlined the major reasons for its current success. Comm Bank also gobbled up a fair portion of Aussie and bought Bank West outright at the bottom of the market.
Banks are complex business and retail banking is not the big game as most people that understand the category know.
The brand plays a small role in the purchase decision in this country. There is also dissonance from consumers in terms of switching in this category and almost non-existant competition and differentiation in products, pricing and customer service.
That all equals very fat profits regardless what ads you run and how different you tell people you are – well I’ve got news for you they are not that different and Paris Hilton’s Chuhuha could have delivered the equivalent result.
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SHABANGABANG!!!!!!! I LOVE IT!
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“I want to reveal my allegiance to imaginative thinking in advertising, and the power of great advertising ideas up front, because I have often been painted as anti-creativity. It’s just not the case.”
Reveal your allegiance? Who the fuck do you think you are? Batman?
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Perplexed.
I didn’t comment on the ads. I was just trying to explain why Goodby’s and BMF ‘s work [good or bad – you choose] has made none, or very little at best, contribution to the bank’s recent success. CommBank have enjoyed the benefits of a what could only be described as a ‘perfect storm’ for the Big 4. Even if their own board had sat down and worked out a plan for growth they couldn’t conjured up anything as beneficial to them as the GFC, the Govt bank guarantee and so on and so on and so on. If they’d never done a single ad during that period the CommBank would still have had record profits and record growth.
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@follow the money
Are you arguing then that no bank, ever should advertise? That they have no right to a brand? That because the environment may have handed them a windfall, they shouldn’t spend a buck on trying to sustain (at least) their market share and deliver profit?
So when times are good, there’s no need to advertise or spend money on what defines your brand in a given market? There may not have been any proven, direct contribution to revenue growth in any of CBA’s banking sector but that’s not what branding is about in the short-term.
It’s about positioning and (back to marketing 101) creating the optimum environment in which sales can occur. I’m pretty sure that’s the intent of this campaign.
Now look what you’ve gone and made me do; I’ve defended a bank and continued to fan Graham Ford’s ego in doing so!
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Reading Ford’s article, he puts fwd a reasoned argument against the CBA creative. He is obviously not alone as John Singleton also criticised it. Ford makes many ‘motherhood’ statements about the CBA brand that underline his premise. As he worked there they are probably straight out of their marketing handbook.
Ford laments that they “didn’t dig deeper into a more insightful understanding of the brand”. He states the objective seems to be to portray the CBA as the “bringers of common sense and thus cast the bank in a better light” and that this is based on flawed thinking. I think he is half right; it’s flawed but not in thinking – it’s the execution that’s flawed. The actual offense here is that this work is being done by a US agency – I do agree with Ford that the real US agency shud be replaced by an Australian one.
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david@luvyawork
Re-read what I wrote David and you’ll see that I’m not arguing that no bank should ever advertise.
I, like others on this blog, was just stating the obvious. So, I’ll explain it again.
REGARDLESS OF ANY ADVERTISING, the GFC created a set of circumstances which virtually assured any of the Big 4 a massive windfall that guaranteed them:
an once in a lifetime influx of capital in the form of savings
leading to a huge increase in profits
a massive decrease in competition
funds to be able to purchase second tier lenders at bargain basement prices
resulting in a huge increase in home loans [the banks now owned the second tier home loan lenders]
and the CommBank could expect to benefit most because:
it has the greatest reach throughout the country, whether it be via stand alone branches, or the sub-branches they operate [in less profitable areas not serviced by the other 3 of the Big 4[ in conjunction with the Post Office.
All of the above would’ve happened even if THECOMMBANK, OR ANY OTHER BANK, HADN’T RUN A SINGLE AD.
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@follow the money
If you weren’t, when are they allowed to advertise?
Irrespective, none of this, whatsoever in any way has anything to do with the article being discussed on this ‘blog’.
Take care.
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Abolish ATM fee’s! Oh, I actually find the adverts on TV quite funny. Little robot things and money boxes. I am not sure about the American accents though, however most shows on TV are from the US, so I guess it’s the norm…?
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Well… they are “determined to be different”… the Ads are rather different… CRAP!… but they ARE different. If that was the only message they had hoped to get across, i guess you could say it worked. They really could have produced the same crap without those American accents though.
I highly doubt the Ads have anything to do with the wonderful 72% hike in stock prices however!
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david@luvyawork
The answer to your question David is simple:
in your blog [#2 on this site] you were very happy to tell everyone how successful the CommBank has been – and I’m very happy to tell you why they’ve been successful over the last 18 months – and it has nothing to do with their advertising – no matter how good, bad, or indifferent it might be.
.
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Perhaps, possibly, maybe it isn’t as black and white as M Perplexed and Follow the Money might think. It could just be that various factors combined, some market and macro economic and some brand. The GFC, 4 Pillars and Some Americans. Sounds like a book might buy buy at the airport and have rejected come expense claim time!
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I’m perplexed. If I follow the money can I rob da bank?
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I agree, the Commbank TVCs are shocking, actually cringe-worthy.
The fact that the concept is a rip-off of the NatWest adverts in the UK just rubs salt into the wound
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How are they ‘determined to be different’ to other Aussie banks? The ads use the strapline in reference to the US agency. The bank’s great product/service “idea” at the end isn’t anything different to what their competitors are offering.
And their cheap as chips purchase of Bankwest helped them stay at the top and now let’s them dominate both east and west coast markets.
Anyone up for some chest beating?
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Being “Determined to be Different” is a significantly better line than “Which Bank?”
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@follow the money
Yes, a rising tide (the GFC support) floats all boats. I think the other commenters are saying that based on market share, Commbank’s boat was floated faster and higher, and that just maybe this ad campaign had something to do with the market’s pre-disposition to Commbank.
By the way, I failed to notice the flood of people at my local post office making their million dollar deposits because of the bank guarantee. Must have happened on pension day.
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@Zac Martin – only in Shabangabang.
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I feel that these commercials do nothing but make the customers look stupid for banking with Commonwealth Bank.
Throwing so much money into nothing has not helped, bolstered or even lessened their market share. No doubt Commonwealth Bank has a large market share including myself but I’d rather something more tangible like more ATM’s or something of perceived value from being a customer already.
I do like witty commercials, but i think they fail in achieving that.
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I love it when ad agency folks try to talk financial matters.. Perplexed, pull your head in mate and get back to your ipad. The ads are rubbish and the only reason for commbanks growth is that they were performing so poorly with such a low share price, when the competition was killed off by the goverment they only had one way they could go.
A monkey with a cardboard sign could have achieved the same result?
BTW how long have you worked on the CBA account?
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