I spent over a decade working on banks, so I have special pity for creatives working on banks.
Banking is a prime example of a parity product. Banks all do the same thing. The only difference is the color of the debit cards.
And there are too many. Half of the bank and credit union brands could disappear and it wouldn’t affect consumers.
And pity particularly those creatives saddled with selling digital banks. Why go with Ally, Varo, Bread, Rocket, SoFi, Marcus, Chime, Money Lion, Qube, N26, or Synchrony when you’re surrounded by actual, physical banks?
Digital banks would need really compelling reasons to use them instead of Chase.
If you direct deposit at least $36,000 a year with Chime, you pay no fees for the account or overdrafts or ATMs plus you get a savings account that pays 3.75%, and get access to your direct deposit two days before payday.
Varo matches all that and will give you 4% interest on savings, and, if you make $60,000, they’ll hand you $400 to open an account.
And Ally? Same early payday, free ATMs, no fees, and, well, an inferior 3.10% on savings.
And you know how all the Big Four banks’ ATMs accept cash deposits? With Ally, you can go to any Walmart to deposit cash. And they make that out to be a benefit.
With not much to say about the product, Ally's new agency, Anomaly, Los Angeles, has opted to focus on the customer.
Or, put more cynically, they filmed the planners’ focus group results presentation.
It’s beautifully executed. The script, casting, film, and edit are all well done.
But the message? “Today, doing it right looks different. That’s why you need a bank that was actually built for life today. Ally.”
Maybe the press release reveals more of the intent?
“The campaign is built on a clear insight: for today's consumers financial progress no longer follows a neat, linear path of school, house, marriage, and retirement. Financial journeys are built through a mix of long-term goals and everyday moments: travel and wellness, friendships and fandom, home projects and new experiences.”
Yeah. Still nothing there. They’re putting a mirror up to the target hoping that will lure prospects to connect with the product.
People are stressed about how to balance the needs for today with the pressure to save for retirement. A tale as old as time. I saw that "insight" on a brief in 2007.
Maybe enough people will see themselves in this woman – is she Gen Z or Millennial or both? – that they’ll look at Ally before Varo, Chime, Marcus, etc.
I’ll give them this – it’s certainly an improvement on their previous fill-in-the-blank schtick campaign I sneered at many posts ago.
Glad they moved on. Fine-ally.
Director: Daniel Wolfe. Via: Adsoftheworld. See the :30 people will actually see here.
