This campaign could make me switch. Again.
After recently switching to ING Direct Ian Sizer says the current ad campaign for the online bank is seriously making him consider switching back.
When you get an ad appearing every single ad break it can be irritating. Some ads though go way beyond irritating and become so infuriating it can totally bugger up your evening.
That’s what happened to me last weekend when my viewing was interrupted on a regular basis by the latest offering from ING Direct.
You may have seen it and I hope you were able use the opportunity provided by this brand message to go make a cuppa or grab another beer from the fridge. Because that’s what you do normally, isn’t it? You certainly don’t whip yourself up into rage that has you registering your outrage on the company’s website, like I did.
So, what was it about this particular ad that got me so offside? Well, it just so happens that I’m a new ING Direct customer. After years and years with the Commbank, I did what many Australians have thought about doing, I switched. But before I switched I did my research because I was looking for a bank that I didn’t think existed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6B8EPp1B2c
I was looking for a bank with low or, if possible, no fees and a bank that offered easy online access and a great cash machine network for my everyday transactions. I was also after a competitive rate of interest on a savings account and, as a little bonus request, it would be nice if they could actually be bothered to answer the phone on those rare occasions when I really need to talk to someone.
That’s quite a lot to ask of the customer-phobic Australian banking sector but lo and behold, I actually found a bank that pretty much fulfilled the brief – ING Direct.
So, all’s good with my new bank until the marketing team and their agency decided to ruin a rare night in front of the telly with an ad that fails to make mention of any of the reasons I chose them. Worse still, they’ve put something out there that actively makes me dislike them to the point where I’m thinking of switching. Again.
If you’re lucky enough to have missed the ad, it’s one of those “The making of the ad” ads. The star of the ad is an actress called Isla Fisher, who was obviously cast because of her amazing likeness to the ING Direct logo, a bright orange lion. Unfortunately, that’s where the resemblance to the brand as I know it ends, she goes on to create a nauseating, prima donna character who’s introduced as the new “Brand ambassador”. That’s right, the person that ING Direct have chosen to represent their brand is portrayed as a right pain in the arse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUELovudaoI
Now, I’ve no doubt that I’ve got this all wrong and this is meant to be one of those post-modern ads where “we’ve made it bad on purpose because that’s funny” but do you know what? I’m not the one who’s got this wrong.
This is an ad for a bank, my bank, where I keep my money and I didn’t switch because I think you’ve got a quirky sense of humour. I switched because of some good products and service and I really think that’s what you should be spending your marketing budget telling people.
What’s more I’d quite like it if my bank was telling people why I was smart to switch to ING Direct. Every time I pull my bright orange card out of my wallet I want people to think, “He’s switched to that really smart bank, the one that lets you use any cash machine in Australia free of charge (or any one of a bunch of other really good reasons you might switch too)”.
I want my card to say something good about me, I don’t want it to make them immediately think about some insufferable redhead, who looks like a lion and makes me feel like an idiot for choosing a bank stupid enough to spend heaps of money making her their brand identity.
I’ve just read somewhere that this is a long-term strategy, the start of a post-modern, soap opera ad campaign. That’s an awful waste of a great opportunity (and substantial budget) to create a truly differentiated brand in the banking sea of bland. I would urge the ING marketing team to have a hasty re-think about this campaign because you need to understand this…
ING Direct is a switcher’s brand and once a switcher, always a switcher.
- Ian Sizer is a freelance copywriter
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I agree completely Ian. These are the most nonsensical annoying ads on TV at the moment. Who in their right minds approved crap like this. Somebody please make it end…..
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I actually agree with everything you’ve said in this article – I was close to moving from CBA (where I had my original dollarmite account!) to ING Direct, but these ads have really turned me off.. I know they offer great products, low/no fees and a great online banking experience, but none of this is shown in those ads..
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First it was the creepy pervy Orangutan and now its creepy bitchy Celebrity
Maybe next it will be Kyle Sandilands he can be all of those things?
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wow – best article critiquing advertising in ages. 100% right too.
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I don’t see any ads on Autstralian FTA TV because FTA TV is unbearable due to too many ads (or at least it was when I abandoned it) and won’t pay for pay TV that has ads. So I’ve not seen this ad that annoys you. Having said that it has prompted you to write an article in which, aside from the no-doubt justified whinging about crappy advertising, you recommended a bank for being half decent at what you want a bank to be half decent at. So I’ll consider switching to them. So it ironic that a crap ad that I’ll never see worked to get me as a customer of the bank. One more thing: like me, I reckon you should get out more …
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Makes me glad (again) I don’t have a TV.
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Couldn’t agree more! I am an ING customer of a few years – both the savings and transaction accounts. I think this ad is ridiculously insulting to the core reasons I joined ING – simple, clear, no strings, no drama. I just don’t get why they would go down this route. I want a bank to be clear and simple, and respectful – I don’t want to be taken on some silly confusing soap opera journey. If this is the first part of the series, they need to rethink this pretty urgently!
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I received a really annoying email – from Isla – saying ‘I’m Isla and I really want to know what you want from your bank. So take my survey.”
It just annoyed me. Isla wanted to know about my habits? Really? It made me want to switch out.
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100% agree. I reckon this toturous campaign is up there with the CBA “Determined to be Different” campaign which had a fictional US ad agency talking about the bank.
The brand marketing team at ING has really failed on this one. From the start, I was confused why their new brand ambassador was pitched as not knowing anything about ING. How is that a brand ambassador? Oh that’s right…it’s meant to be funny.
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As someone who has worked extensively on ING, I couldn’t agree more. This campaign is slowly dismantling a once great brand and damaging the bank’s core values. It’s self absorbed, cynical and fronted by an utterly unloveable character.
I’m amazed Vaughan let it out the door.
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or you could,
not watch content full of ads…
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When I saw the 2nd ad in the series (dear god I hope it’s a two part series) I thought that the first insanely bad advert was in someway justified, but then having been bombarded by the 2nd ad, I placed it with the 1st ad and wondered if anyone out there was as peeved with these as myself. Thanks for helping me find peace Ian.
Perhaps you might be hired to write something far better ……I would hope might be the result of this article as a starting point.
And further to the 1st ad in the series, it is a lesson in how to destroy your brand as now the kids say the incorrect version of the name as Isla did. Surely that was’t the intention when trying to capture the youth snap chatter market as it would appear you have been attempting.
Maybe the youngsters have been captured by these shenanigans…..I’d say not.
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And the author has been through it all before. Remember back in 2008, when Commonwealth Bank was “Determined to be different”?
But perhaps try a credit union; they offer many of the benefits of online banks such as ING.
Not so ironic now, FFS.
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I moved to ING a month ago based on a recommendation of a friend, he told me about the saving rates, free ATMs, simple mobile app and cash back on paypass so I joined.
I hadn’t heard of them or seen a single ad so when I tried to tell people about this “too good to be true” bank offer it fell on deaf ears.
What this ad does is it makes people aware of the bank, regardless of how annoying it is. I’d imagine that there will be plenty more annoying ads where they will start dropping in all the features once brand awareness has been increased so that feature based ads hit a bigger audience.
No other banking ad has caught my attention in recent times so pretty sure that their strategy is working.
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It is the job of the media buyer to ensure that TVC’s are not played to the point of “wear out”.
This is especially significant where the TVC is using humour to convey the brand message.
The promotions department at TV stations could also do with some education in refreshing their on air promos.
JV
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FFS and some, haha agree with ya. all he did was promote them. if jyou dont like an add dont watch it. there are plenty of annoying adds on tv get over it ian
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Completely agree. When I saw the first ad at the cinema I couldn’t believe how dumb it was. The little I know of Isla Fisher I quite like her, so why make her play a stupid, insufferable, bimbo in scripts that are lame and unfunny? Would have turned me off ING for life, except you do quite a good sell on them…
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A creative asks for more product messaging in an ad
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You’re so right. And Isla’s not to blame. She can be funny and likeable, yet the writers have brilliantly managed to portray her as the exact opposite. We don’t have the patience for a slow-burn, sack it off!
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As someone else who used to work on ING DIRECT, it’s disappointing to see their brand take such a flippant and irrelevant turn.
This is a sad example of a challenger brand cheating itself of a strong strategic positioning and going against it’s core, intelligent consumer segment, to produce drivel that annoys everybody.
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I think you spend too much time in front of the TV to care this much. The ads aren’t even that bad…
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That feel when you pitch on the business and this is what you lose to
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DEMANDACOMMANDA! DEMANDACOMMANDA! DEMANDACOMMANDA! DEMANDACOMMANDA! DEMANDACOMMANDA!
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I don’t know what all the fuss is about. These ads made me chuckle!
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I think they’re kinda funny.
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Let’s put any blame to be awarded on the Marketing department who decided this ad was the direction in which the ING advertising should go rather than Ilsa, who is just an actress they hired.
I automatically tune out out of TV advertising due to its repetitive nature, thank grod.
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You say you want a credit card that makes you proud. Then you want more rational messages??
Problem is, all banks make similar claims about product benefit, so why should we believe and notice these? I just switch off when they start talking rates and fees. It’s all arbitrary to me.
For the record, I hate the ads
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I’m trying to decide whether I prefer booing the TV when the ads come on or when Goodesy gets the ball?
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Interesting! Disrupting the market – ING Direct Australia has the highest NPS rating (Net Promoter Score) of all banks in Australia. This represents customer satisfaction of the banks products, promotions, and deliverance of promise measured against all other banks in Australia. #INGdisruptive
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I liked the ad when I saw it initially and didn’t mind the pun intended approach but I completely agree that it is such a waste of marketing budget when it does nothing to promote the good things they are doing behind the scenes. I wouldn’t mind what people make/think of my orange debit card (when I have one) but yeah it is quite unsettling to see what made them go down this path when this ad doesn’t have the potential to convince me to switch to ING.
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Aren’t we missing the point here? Of course they could do more to communicate the offering, but these ads aren’t designed for you/I. There is obviously low brand awareness in the market and this is addressing it, or trying to. More data/offerings, unless revolutionary, will be lost.
The ads are ok. There are far worse.
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They are horrible, been saying it for weeks. Can’t watch them.
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You want product attributes in a bank TVC. Seriously? I’d expect this commentary from a client desperate for sales, not a writer who should understand the basics of long term brand building and the need to create permission with the audience first before engaging in a conversation designed to create a sale.
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She comes across as nasty. – instead of cheekie. Scripts are ok. The blame belongs squarely with the director.
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It’s the fashion these days to create characters & an ongoing drama in advertising (alternatively try create a zesty jingle ‘I bought a Jeep’ or ‘It’s a Mitzy’. As if the Rhonda / Captain Risky ads aren’t bad enough, there’s this. Zero strategy behind it, zero alignment to their core values or their customer base, and just plain confusing.
The answer is to record all the stuff you want to watch, and then play back and fast forward thru the ad breaks.
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My Dad knew a little about a lot – but he knew a lot about money and finance ‘n stuff.
He used to say “people who joke about money can’t be trusted”.
I rebelled against this slanderous attack on jokesters; until more Life Lessons taught me it is correct.
They need ‘The Bank’ (in the form of an Actor) to ‘correct’ Isla in the way BankWest ‘corrects’ John McEnroe.
That’s what’s missing from their (copied) formula.
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@ Anonymous,
What makes you think it is the fashion these days? We have been doing jingles, catch words, characters, on going stories and little dramas for centuries!
We have been calling it…. Advertising.
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Stupid stupid ridiculous adverts. Who on earth thinks they’re intelligent or funny or inspiring?? Please stop.
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This is an add for Ing. Now i hate you as well
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