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.
Nicol said ING Direct differs from most financial organisations as she described the business as “fast-paced, dynamic and innovative”.
“What stood out for me at ING Direct was that it has a growth strategy, an incredible customer focus – not just talking about it but living and breathing it – and an innovative edge that you don’t traditionally see in financial services,” she said.
“We started off as a savings bank and we did phenomenally well in that area. We are now trying to reinvent the landscape about how banking can be and how it can be an enjoyable and pleasurable experience.”
The Isla Fisher campaign taps directly into the bank’s ethos, she said.
“That is our brand, that’s how we see ourselves,” Nicol said, referring to the self-deprecating advertising campaign which sees Fisher shift perceptions of the company in a light-hearted series of commercials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvoibBNLQEU
The TV, social and digital campaign, which is looking to position ING as a primary bank, also invited customers to share their thoughts and experiences of the bank on a microsite.
“Yes, we take money seriously but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. The campaign is a bit cheeky, it’s innovative and a bit edgy,” Nicol said.
“The campaign microsite itself is quite a brave move. How many other financial services institutions would invite their customers in a very public way to tell us what they thought. That in itself was different.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp-0Y4ExYkY
Nicol denied the irreverent nature of the messaging was in danger of undermining the bank’s desire to be taken seriously and become a genuine alternative to Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ.
“It is quite possible to be irreverent and serious. People are saying we are doing just that. It is all part of breaking down the boundaries of how people perceive things,” she said.
Nicol said the invitation for public comments has drawn 30,000 responses, many of them remarks “you would not expect people to hear about a bank”.
“We were very, very surprised at the level of responses, which have been overwhelmingly positive. It has far exceeded our expectations ” she said. “The concept behind the campaign has been customer advocacy. Australians trust their friends and family and we have leveraged that in our campaign to get the message out.”
While the marketing boss said the campaign had been positively received, she declined to provide specifics on customer growth.
“At the end of the day, for any business [growth] is the bottom line, but I would also say that keeping our existing customers happy and being able to engage with them is really important too,” she said.
“We want to be tracking in a certain direction by the end of the year and it’s looking positive.”
The Isla Fisher campaign is scheduled to run throughout the year with a plan beyond then yet to be finalised. But Nicol said there was sufficient material to keep the campaign “alive and to keep it different”.
She told Mumbrella the bank’s future marketing will not be “cut and dried”, with all channels likely to play a part, but agreed that digital and social will become increasingly important.
“What channel you use depends on the message you are trying to get across,” she explained. “TV is the best way to build your brand awareness and change people’s perceptions, but I think we will continue down the path of using a lot of digital and social, particularly as we are a direct business.
“Every channel has its purpose.”
Steve Jones
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.
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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.
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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…
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“It is quite possible to be irreverent and serious.” That comment is just silly… like the campaign is not relevant.
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@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
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It’s not a promising campaign.
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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.
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I’ll try and be positive.
It’s better than that yeti campaign.
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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.
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Cut it now before its to late
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