By Princewill Ekwujuru

Quite recently, the print medium was awash with the Stanbic IBTC Ad campaign, illustrating a smiling upper class white colar worker with a Smartphone and an ipad sitting pretty in his front.

When you see the Ad, questions become rift in your mind, while contending what the bank is driving at, and what it intends to achieve. From a focal point,   the selling proposition of the ad is an offer to the young man of a range of products and services to meet his needs.

The body copy further explained that Stanbic IBTC has the products and services that customers need, in addition, it’s opening more branches.

Even though not explicitly stated, opening new branches will naturally enhance access by customers to its services. It goes on to ask customers to check its website for the branch closest to them and finally hones in on the sales pitch: “Let’s talk about how we can help you move from where you are to where you want to be.” Simply, it wants to work with its customers to discern and better understand their needs and thereafter proffer customers with solutions that can help add value to their life and business.

The choice of a 40-plus year old successful-looking model on its press ads is smart.

After all, a huge proportion of the likely targeted audience base belongs in this age range. It may also be aspirational in that those who do not perceive themselves to be quite as successful may want to aspire to be like the man in the Stanbic IBTC Ad.

The banks choice of wording is also refreshing: It says “Let’s give you…” and “let’s talk about how we can help you”, implying that this is a two-way process in which the customer is just as relevant as the bank.

Developing a solution for customers entails them engaging with the bank such that both parties can better understand their needs and aspirations as a prelude to the bank offering solutions that have been customized to meet these needs and aspirations.

However, the Ad is a departure from the days when banks screamed products and services at customers from the roof tops.
Differentiation:

The Ad is also uncluttered and it’s overall messaging, simple. It’s a plus for creative advertising, and a big break from the routine of conventional advertising which often suffers the set-back that most Ads tend to look so much alike, that it is often difficult for the casual observer to differentiate the brand which is advertising.

Its presentation is also unique in many other ways. For instance, its headline is not presented in the conventional manner but in a certain indirect manner that entices the reader to read from beginning to end, starting from one page and ending at the other. In the process, using the technique of iconography, the reader is creatively enticed to dwell a little longer on the products and services, namely car loan, home loan, current account and credit card, on offer.

The headline, in addition, takes one directly to the body copy which in this case should be more rightfully termed end-copy as it is featured at the very tail end of the ad. This copy reinforces the promise assuring the customer or prospective customer that as it possesses the right products and services, the bank is very willing to be of service to him.

Overall, the ad is  good and looks destined to garner considerable attention from the key target audiences in the upper to middle demographic segments to which it was apparently aimed at. Its use of double spread instead of the centre-spread or full page, its aesthetic presentation, its refreshing use of a cool hue of its corporate colour (blue), its innovative use of illustration, its short and refreshing copy, all of these are very strong positives for what is obviously a new and strong theme campaign by this brand.

Negatives:
The major negative aspect of the ad, however is in the positioning of what ought to be the body copy. In this instance, the body copy is positioned at the tail end of the ad, adjacent to the Stanbic IBTC Bank logo.

Written in rather small type, a casual reader or observer could very possibly mistake it for the traditional disclaimers accompany promos and some ads.It is clear that in the concept deployed, the bank is trying to dramatize partnership, in the manner in which the Stanbic IBTC logo blends into the copy. However it may want to experiment with expanding this segment of the ad in such a manner that the copy is easily discernable and more reader-friendly.

It will be interesting to look out for the approaches which the bank will deploy especially in reaching out to the lower social demographic segments. It will indeed be great to see this blue chip brand talk to customers and potential customers in Pidgin English, the language of the common man.