A New Found Confidence

In The Good Weekend, Australia’s most read weekend newspaper supplement, on Saturday there were a handful of interesting financial services advertisements of note.

The ads were from industry thoroughbreds Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and the latter’s investment arm BT Financial Group – full page ads for both the two banks and three strip ads for BT.

The first, for Westpac bank planners on page 19 was from the Charles Saatchi school of long copy advertising – full of clear reasons why people should save more and why Westpac was the partner for their superannuation, cash savings and generally all-round savings partner for life.

The ad was targeted at Australia’s 40+ age demographic – you could tell this because of the accompanying imagery of two highly groomed women and a man seated around a desk, deep in discussion, where the male is partly bald.

It featured headings like, “Tell us where you are going, make your super work super hard, save well, earn more, get your super and banking on the same page and grow your savings swiftly and securely” – all homilies, which tend to run the course of any standard financial services advertisement, except that it contains a link to another brand – btsuperforlife.com.au.

It’s not that they are promoting btsuperforlife, which among other things, is an interface that allows customers to view their super as a regular part of their information transactions on the internet – it’s that in the same supplement there are two distinct different ads for the same organisation.

A few pages after the Westpac long-copy ad, are three for BT Investment Management, owned for some years by Westpac that are promoting not so much the idea of saving but a focus on big ideas, like macros strategies, global investment markets and the idea that all this amazing talent is warehoused in the BT organisation.

In a big leap from the friendly Westpac style – these ads are shot in moody black and white, target subject looking deep into camera, Al Pacino style as if they are going to say something either deeply loving or vaguely threatening.

What’s curious about this leading man approach is that the company it’s promoting, BT is owned by Westpac, the warm and friendly company appearing only a scant half a dozen pages prior.

One ad promoting the discipline of saving being a feature of the bank and its friendly staff, the other being big ideas and the individuals that run them.

This reveals a few things – the first that Westpac has worked out a split brand strategy for its Westpac financial planning and BT Investments brands – one apparently focused on people who like long copy ads and going into banks, the other on self directed people who respond to the emotive lure of black and white portraiture.

Yet it’s not over for this matt all-colour magazine, further on – the CBA advertisement appears in all its stark primary colour glory – informing the reader that another way CBA is determined to be different is by making retirement planning simple via a book and a free financial planning seminar.

Full page ad, short copy simple message.

It’s not for burning pants to say which of these strategies is the best, nor is it particularly important which one we like the most, but what is clear is that both CBA and Westpac are now not just manufacturers of financial products – they are in the business of openly promoting their own sales teams, reflecting a new confidence in the sophistication and skills of the people behind the bank desks.

The sub-text too is clear – if you need a financial plan – don’t just go and see any old financial adviser, come and see OUR financial adviser and as far as BT goes – well, their idea is that you may not actually need a financial adviser, you simply download the information from the internet and make your own decision.