Poking fun at ourselves will give us edge over rivals, says new marketing head at ING Direct
ING Direct has set itself apart from rivals by adopting an irreverent, self-deprecating approach that has broken the mould of financial service advertising, its new head of marketing has said.
Fiona Nicol told Mumbrella that while the company takes its customers and money “very seriously”, its aim was to inject an element of fun into the tradionally-staid sector and make banking “an enjoyable experience”.
ING Direct’s current multi-million dollar marketing push from VCCP fronted by Isla Fisher, in which the Australian actress pokes fun at the brand, is symptomatic of its approach, Nicol said.
The comments came during her first trade interview since joining the bank in May after a 12-year career with Zurich Financial Services, 10 of them overseas. Nicol also consulted at Westpac’s BT Financial Group immediately prior to her current role.
What Fiona seems to miss is that she’s defining ‘fun’ in the context of their own category, as opposed to fun in the lives of real people.
This isn’t irreverent or deprecating. It’s just dull.
If anyone is self deprecating it’s Isla Fisher. If you think this campaign is “cheeky, innovative and edgy” it’s obvious that your only frame of reference is the financial services industry. The rest of us have the internet, compared to which this campaign is lame and forced and cliched.
It hasn’t been positively received, there are plenty of complaint’s about it on Facebook sponsored posts. Comments that it’s a waste of money, not funny and others suggesting suggesting its sexist with its stereotypes.
The positive comments are unsurprisingly limited to the ING customers posting on the website. But this campaign isn’t about existing customers…
“It is quite possible to be irreverent and serious.” That comment is just silly… like the campaign is not relevant.
@3, you can find criticism about sexism and stereotypes on any piece of content that features a woman. if ING have really received 30k positive messages in regards to this campaign then i’d say that is good result. plus, people really like isla fisher.
IMO this is a pretty good campaign – billy connolly is a hard act to follow.
i’m not going to switch from my beloved MECU though
It’s not a promising campaign.
Shareholders will be asking whether this campaign is driving new customers? Great brand scores are one thing, but if it doesn’t convert into business then what’s the point. Would love ING to share these numbers when talking about how good their campaign is to give us all context on whether it is actually working or not.
I’ll try and be positive.
It’s better than that yeti campaign.
Self deprecation is the gasp of a creative team. When the brand you are working for is so utterly awful all you can do is laugh at it and yourself for having to work on the account. When every idea you try feels so utterly fake that you just have to give in to the absurdity of what you are doing. It doesn’t say to consumers “we don’t take ourselves too seriously” it says we seriously do not know what we stand for so we will just try and ingratiate ourselves with you by trying to be funny. The production is good, Isla is great but after it’s gone, all that remains in nothing.
Cut it now before its to late