Determined to be different
That’s the new tagline of The Commonwealth Bank, which recently unveiled a brilliant advertising campaign aimed at differentiating the established Australian bank from its competitors. Though they are using a traditional marketing medium (television), the commercials are anything but typical. According to the bank’s marketing general manager, Mark Buckman, “…we have created is more like a sitcom series than it is conventional advertising“. Take a look at the commercial below, which is more reminiscent of a scene from The Office than anything else:
They also have a very cool microsite to go with the campaign (go to the Campaign page, where you can view their very funny commercial for Dollarmites, the bank’s club for kids). Commonwealth Bank is certainly proving their “Determined to be different” story with this campaign. What other banks are running ads like that? The bank marketing world tends to be pretty conservative compared to many other industries, and it’s refreshing to see this innovative bank brand breaking the mold. Keep it up, Commonwealth!



April 16th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
U have got to be joking. Have you not noticed around your blog other people think the campaign’s shit. Firstly because the CBA dictated that they are different, this is for the consumers to decide and in what way. Brand personalization is more about showing, then shouting please remember this.
A lot of people do not share CBA’s view. If you don’t believe me begin by looking at the comments made. Google Blog’s search and comments made on YouTube are very clear about that.
This campaign is non relevant to the consumer and shows no real benefit, so why should they care. Please be aware that the online community has also been blogging about the Determined to be different campaign and has it pointed out as completely missed the target on bringing a positive view to CBA.
One of a dozen Negative blogs:
http://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/2008/03/commonwealth-ba.html
One other thing the Dollarmites campaign is separate from the Determined to be Different campaign, they should not be placed under the same marketing campaign. The TV Ads don’t send the consumer to Dollarmites website so unless the consumer’s are refered to it through Commbank or other advertising elsewhere I just don’t think they will get there.
I hope you understand where I am coming from:
ZGambit (Digital Marketing Research Strategist)