Rabobank Comes To The Big Smoke With The Click Of A Mouse
The Age
Saturday April 12, 2008
THE bank to which rural Australians have traditionally turned for loans is embarking on an ambitious marketing campaign to win cashed-up metropolitan consumers in the growing online savings market.
Ads for the Dutch Rabobank's online banking service will be launched tomorrow with a tongue-in-cheek message showing how easily people can manage their savings with the click of a mouse. The commercials, which begin tomorrow night, feature caricatures of mega-wealthy people dealing with the judgement that society places on them just for enjoying simple, innocent pleasures such as collecting yachts. But Rabobank, the largest lender to farmers after NAB, is entering a market that is already hot and cares more about the top-line savings rate than the brand of the bank offering it.It is the latest bank to veer away from traditional bank ads featuring smiling tellers and lofty claims of customer service in an attempt to stand out in an increasingly cluttered market. Late last year, NAB's retail arm relaunched as the bank that helped people chase their goals, with a blockbuster ad featuring a nerd climbing Mount Everest. Earlier this year Commonwealth Bank started airing ads with a sitcom-style storyline featuring an inept fictitious American ad agency. BankWest followed with bizarre ads starring kittens and making the promise that its approach can make you happy. To get its message through the mass of ads by its larger rivals - the Big Four spent $102 million in advertising in the 11 months to January - Rabobank has to be quirky. Rabobank's media budget is between $5 million and $10 million, according to media buying sources, a fraction of the biggest spender, ANZ, at $35 million. Rabobank's sales and marketing manager Jacqui Steiner said bank ads were largely forgettable. "We are a new brand so we have to be different. We have to stand out and get through the clutter," she said. After a "soft launch" in May last year, the bank has deposits "well in excess of $1 billion" but refused to disclose how many clients had signed up. Ms Steiner said: "We feel it's the right time to widen the base and go to a wider audience."
© 2008 The Age
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