Green chair, “second opinion” win raves

TD advisors say the bank’s TV advertising works on many levels. One account manager in Ontario says the TV ads, which highlight the bank’s extended hours, draw people into his branch: “The two old gentlemen on the bench are hilarious. It brings home a clear message about our hours. They are unprecedented, in that we are open 50% more than our competition. Our competitors’ clients tell us they found out about our hours through our ads.”

The theme of TD’s advertising is “Banking can be this easy”; the green chair is the visual representation of this campaign.

“The whole concept of TD Canada Trust is to make things comfortable for the client,” says another TD advisor in Ontario. “That is represented through our green chair.”

Dominic Mercuri, executive vice president and chief marketing officer with the bank’s parent, TD Bank Financial Group, explains further: “In 2001, when TD and Canada Trust came together, we launched our brand positioning about making banking comfortable. It would speed the communication if there was a recognizable icon that spoke to the brand. That is when the chair was developed.”

TD has even used green chairs in strategic product placements. One such example is the TD Canada Trust Comfort Zone, a block of front-row seats at Toronto’s Rogers Centre for Toronto Blue Jays baseball games. The seats are usually awarded to fans who participate in special contests.

Such strategic placements have given the chairs an almost cult-like following, say the bank’s advisors; branches even use them in promotions. “You have to apply through the regional office to get the chairs [for events], and you can’t always get them,” says a TD advisor in Ontario. “We wanted two for an event and they could only give us one.”

Another TD account manager in Ontario likens the aura of the chair to a Canadian icon: “Sometimes we get the chair in the branch’s lobby and clients sit in it and get their pictures taken. It is a lot of fun. It is almost like the Stanley Cup.”

Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia, which placed second in the consumer advertising category, takes aim at its competitors with its TV ad campaign.

“Our focus is on solutions,” says Wendy Hannam, the bank’s executive vice president of domestic personal banking and distribution. “Scotiabank’s ‘second opinion’ message invites Canadians to take advantage of a no-obligation second opinion on their portfolios.”

Just as with TD, Scotiabank advisors see the impact of their firm’s advertising first-hand. “The ‘second opinion’ campaign has been phenomenal; a lot of people come in with their investment statements in hand and use those words,” says a Scotiabank advisor in Ontario. “Scotiabank has been aggressive. The [ads] are in the movie theatres, newspapers and in mass mailings. I like that.”

“Aggressive” is certainly one way to describe Scotiabank’s recent advertising initiatives. The bank has teamed up with Cineplex Entertainment LP to promote the SCENE loyalty program, in which those who use the bank’s debit or credit cards earn points for free movie tickets. Scotiabank, which has banks throughout the Americas, has also sponsored Toronto’s famed Caribana festival, which includes the naming rights, and the prestigious Giller Prize, which awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story written in English. Moreover, Scotiabank sponsors a pre-game show for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night, entitled Scotiabank Hockey Tonight.

Scotiabank advisors are ecstatic about the added business the marketing brings in. “What Scotiabank is doing is great,” says one of the bank’s advisors in Ontario. “I can’t see how it can improve upon that.”

But account managers with Montreal-based National Bank of Canada and Vancouver-based Vancouver City Savings Credit Union were not as impressed with their firms’ advertising efforts.

@page_break@For National Bank, geography may be the problem. “The firm is Quebec-based, and all the money is spent in Quebec, not in Ontario,” says a National Bank account manager in Ontario. “The bank is not on TV, not in newspapers; there is nothing in Ontario. But National Bank is everywhere in Quebec.”

And a National Bank advisor on the bank’s home turf likewise sees the advantage to having a national presence: “It must increase its advertising across Canada.”

Margaret Pernice, senior manager of wealth management with National Bank, acknowledges there is something amiss. “It’s an issue for the bank to expand outside of Quebec,” she says. “There are no new advertising campaigns planned at the moment, but we plan to have some next year.”

Another reason can be attributed to the fact National Bank stays away from TV advertising. “We target high net-worth clients,” Pernice says, so the bank prefers print and specialty publications.

At Vancity, account managers say a lack of clarity is the core problem with the CU’s advertising campaign. For instance, Vancity ran billboard-type advertisements without any visuals, containing only a slogan and the brand name; they didn’t promote any investing options.

“Our marketing department has been doing some crazy stuff,” says a Vancity account manager in British Columbia. “The ads are a little off the wall and they don’t focus on the role of investment specialists.”

Michael Atkinson, Vancity’s director of investment solutions, admits the ads may have resulted in some dissatisfaction. “The marketing team at Vancity has taken a specific approach,” he says. “It is more slanted to the community leadership side, trying to be innovative rather than run of the mill.” IE