From ING to Tangerine: Rebranding Simple Banking

Since its debut in 1997, ING Direct has been great at convincing Canadians from coast to coast that banking can be simple. However, 2014 will become a milestone for the organization, as it represents the unveiling of their new brand: Tangerine. Unlike "typical" rebranding used to revitalize a dying brand, the Bank of Nova Scotia was proactive in their efforts to get a good return on their investment. **i think you need to elaborate on this for people who don't know of the acquisition**

Tangerine kicked-off its campaign in late April, and we could not resist discussing it given the huge impact it left on the Canadian advertising landscape. Obviously, the first portion of the campaign was fully dedicated to getting the new name into the customers mind. The consistency in the colour scheme with their older brand eased the transition, but the massive media reach and frequency is the pivotal point of their success. It was hard for any human-being in a major Canadian city not to be exposed to Tangerine at least once a day. Their most noticeable media placement was in public transportation, where they even bought space on subway doors, a usually ad free space. Their eye-catching flashy orange panels obviously attracts any subway user.

    A massive billboard in Montreal's biggest subway station

The people at Tangerine were also really smart in setting up their rebranding campaign. They did not spend all that money just to let us know about their new name: they built on that momentum to expose us to their offerings. With simple AB multiple choice questions on their OOH and print ads, Tangerine reinforced and introduce to new potential customers its historical competency in keeping banking simple. 

    Example of their OOH advertising, on Yonge street in Toronto 

    Source: http://www.princanada.com/tangerine/

Indeed, the second part of their campaign was even more aggresive and enticed potential customers to check out their websites and offers. Emphasis was put on digital medias (first Canadian bank to use contextual pre-roll Youtube advertising according to Dave Forde http://www.princanada.com/tangerine/), but traditionnal medias such as TV and direct mail were also prominent. 

Their main (and mailed) offer is the $150 bonus available for new customers (check their website for details http://www.tangerine.ca/en/landing-page/bonus150/index.html?utm_medium=TangerineDisplay&utm_source=home&utm_campaign=bonus150)

Tangerine really made a remarkable entry in the new year. Its focus on remaining simple, emphasizing the brand's symbols (orange and mug), committing not to test the waters but to really go large scale, and their refreshing approach to banking makes this campaign a rebranding success. Hopefully the investment will be worth it economically, but even if the numbers are not there in the short-term, they have been great at making Canadians reconsider what they really want from their banks.

    Source: http://www.princanada.com/tangerine/

We want to hear what you think of the Tangerine campaign. Did you like their approach? Did you feel, like us, that this new orange and white brand was everywhere? Is their positioning as a simple bank attractive to you? Comment, we love to read you.

Culture Clash – How We Can Learn From Each Other

            For the last week, Marketing Mindspace has been working with a group of Brazilian exchange students on the topics of Global Branding and Cross Cultural Management. Throughout this period, we have become acutely aware of just how powerful a fresh point of view can be.

            For example, during a lecture on the importance of universal values, the professor was depicting a personification of the respective brand. After providing a detailed explanation of the brands “age”, “appearance”, etc. a Brazil student raised his hand. The conversation went something as follows (paraphrased):

Brazil Student (B): Isn’t that a bit narrow?

Professor (P): Can you please expand?

B: Well, the targeted consumer of this brand is not limited to that description. People who purchase this product are more in line with a certain lifestyle, not a certain personality. Shouldn’t it then be more important that we define the consumer as a lifestyle (psychographics) as opposed to a narrow personification?

While this is a simple point, it caused an epiphany for us. Throughout our respected business degrees, we have all been taught the appropriate methods with which we should understand and highlight our targeted consumer group. However, few of us have ever questioned if this method is the most appropriate. It has become convention for us; a second nature thought that dictates our inclinations, yet perhaps has blinded us from the correct path of action.

            I am not saying that we should reanalyze the way in which we come to specifically understand our consumer group (personification). I am instead attempting to highlight the value of an alternative perspective, one that is not hampered by textbook definitions of right and wrong but instead reacts with an unperturbed mind.

            We will be spending another three weeks with our friends from Brazil. During this time, we are excited to continue to learn from their differences in perspective, and will continue to share what we discover. For this week, we challenged you to find an alternative perspective, and confront your own deep-rooted beliefs. We can learn a lot from each other… all we have to do is listen.

When Students Help Expedia Pass it Along

Marketing professionals surprise us every day with new creative approaches to help us hear about their client’s product(s). However, pros don’t have the monopoly on creativity and it’s always refreshing to see a new wave of advertisers come up with solutions that can truly solve customers’ problems. We have seen some crowdsourcing efforts in the world of advertising before (e.g. Doritos and Superbowl ads), but the example presented today is coming from a group of students at the Miami Ad School in San Francisco.

Without further due, here is the creative and the fictional app they came up with:

First of all, we want to acknowledge the professionalism and the realism of the spot. It was so realistic that it made us look for the app on the App Store, only to realize 10-15 minutes later that it was a school project…

The realism of the video was also enhanced by the fact that the students are addressing an important need for travellers: the need to save money. In a connected and tech-savvy 2014 world, it just makes so much sense to share these unused transportation tickets rather than throw them away.

The other positive side of this whole experience, is that it can be highly beneficial for the Expedia brand. The brand gets huge exposure, from the process of using the Pass It app to the usage of the resulting Expedia credit. The only possible result if the app becomes successful would be even more traffic and purchases on the regular Expedia website to trade in these credits.

However, the most brilliant part in our opinion is the “nice guy/gal” perception that will be associated with the brand. Who could not love a company that helps you easily get rid of an unused item AND gives you money for it? Expedia looks great in this transaction and that can only help reinforce the positive associations to the brand, as well as revenues for the vacation selling website.

Hopefully, the Product Development team at Expedia will hear of the project and will consider putting it to their agenda. The world is filled with smart people and the rise of social platforms to share great ideas like Pass It can help customers and companies live in a better world.

We want to hear from you other great examples of crowdsourcing or amateur projects in the world of advertising and new products. What is your favourite one? Should there be more place for this kind of community involvement in the world of marketing?

A Crash Course on Content: CMI Master Class

           This past week, Marketing Mindspace had the opportunity to attend the Content Marketing Master Class, brought to us by the Content Marketing Institute and LinkedIn. This post is intended to share with you the insights we gained from the event, and open the door to a conversation regarding Content Marketing.

        Hosted at the stunning Four Seasons in Toronto, the conference presented the opportunity for attendees to become intimately engaged with the core concepts around Content Marketing, and how it fits in the evolution of advertising.

        Three keynote speakers were in attendance: Joe Pulizzi – who is the founder of CMI (Content Marketing Institute), Robert Rose – the Chief Strategist of CMI, and Jason Miller – the Senior Content Marketing Manager at LinkedIn. Each brought to the table their unique backgrounds to present a rich and meaningful seminar.

        Pulizzi started by speaking on the Evolution of Content Marketing. Key points from his talk include the core elements of Content Marketing, which are: Sales, Savings, and Sunshine, and a Content Marketing Mission Statement. The Sales, Savings, and Sunshine relates to the importance of having a clear goal in mind for your content marketing, whether that be to increase sales, decrease costs, or create customer satisfaction. This involves developing a “WHY” for each communication channel in the name of guaranteeing that the content produced is working toward the correct purpose.

        A Content Marketing Mission Statement has to answer three questions: 1) who is the Core Target? 2) What content is to be delivered? and 3) What is the intended outcome of this content?

        Note, contrary to common belief, content marketing is not owned media aimed at generating earned media. In order to maximize the effectiveness of a content marketing strategy, it is imperative to have a narrow consumer focus to deliver the most relevant communications. This can result in having multiple content marketing strategies in order to reach your products full demographic range.

        Rose continued this thought, discussing the key difference between targeting virality and targeting resonance. Highlighted through the video below, his discussion pointed out that having a million views means nothing, if your content fails to stimulate behavior. However, a video with a hundred views that stimulates a hundred people to act is far more effective. An underlying fundamental of Content Marketing, is that it should stimulate not more leads, but better leads. This is achieved through messages that resonant, not ones that go viral. With that being said however, there is nothing wrong with virality, as long as it is accompanied by resonance.

Jason Miller then talked about what makes good content. Relevance was cited as one of the most important attributes to have in communications aimed for content marketing. This goes in line well with having content that resonates. A more unique point he brought up was the concept of using content like you would a turkey a thanksgiving. By choosing topics that are large and innovative, you can reuse content in a multitude of platforms, in order to increase the shelf life of an idea, and reduce the pressure of creating new content. Similar to how you eat the leftovers of a turkey dinner for weeks, in the form of sandwiches, soups, etc., great content can be used in blogs, videos, white papers and many other forms, before losing its appeal.

        While we could go on for days about the content discussed at the conference, the above is a good recount of the highlights. The event was well run and a great introduction into the ever-emerging world of Content Marketing. What are your thoughts? Is Content Marketing where we all are headed?

For any others who were in attendance, what are your thoughts? What key takeaways do you have?