Tales of the sector: CBA's 'different' success

As the Commonwealth Bank rolls out the next lot of television commercials (TVCs) in its "Determined to be different” campaign, it is basking in research results showing unprecedented levels of brand attribution by the public.

Product-specific ads began rolling out Wednesday, with the launch of a home loans TVC, to be followed by further ads for the bank's Dollarmites program and NetBank Saver online account.

San Francisco-based firm Goodby Silverstein's big guns, Rich Silverstein and vice chairman & partner Harold Sogard, were in Sydney this week as its client unveiled the first research results of the campaign's performance so far.

And despite the vocal criticism the campaign has attracted within the industry, both agency and client were visibly pleased when presenting the research results to media yesterday.
"We're really excited about where we've ended up at this point in terms of awareness,” said Barbara Chapman, the bank's group executive human resources & group services.

Marketing chief Mark Buckman said the aim of the first TVC, which launched on 26 January, was to introduce the campaign's cast of characters, sitcom drama genre and the bank's new tagline, "Determined to be different”.

"The only thing with this communication is it's far exceeded our expectations – this is where we thought we'd be in six to eight weeks, not after 12 days.”

Where the bank is at is research, conducted by Synovate, showing 64 per cent of people recalling the ad and 96 per cent of those correctly attributing it to CommBank.

According to Goodby Silverstein strategic planner Mike Daniels, who is ex-Clemenger BBDO Sydney, the recognition levels are unprecedented and occurred much faster than the usual four months it takes for bank advertising to register on consumers' radars.

"The predominant response from people is intrigue. They're curious, which was the objective of the opening stanza of the campaign,” Daniel said.

"The research also showed people are expecting things to develop. The message is: 'We expect you to tell us how you are determined to be different.'”

In addition, the research revealed people are already adopting lines from the ads, such as "no elbows", "lose the rabbit" and Austria (instead of Australia), according to Buckman. "In research, people could pick the ad apart . . . and explained the spot in detail," he said.

The next four TVCs are being rolled out according to the original schedule, with up to seven product-specific ads currently in planning. "One of the beauties of this campaign is that it's broad enough to go right across all aspects of our business,” Chapman said.

"One of the goals we hoped to achieve with this campaign was how do we articulate the change and transformation that's happening inside the bank?” Chapman added. "How do we talk about it in a way that cuts through and that's credible? People don't listen to messages from their banks – we needed to create a way to overcome that.”

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