I remember the first time I saw Bankwest’s post-Royal Commission ad. It made me smile. Then it made me feel good. Then it made me feel really good. One bank was not resisting the most important change that banks clearly had to make. Bankwest wasn’t just dropping the bullshit, it was calling it to account. It’s not an ad that makes you gasp. But it is an ad that makes you aaah. Other banks have come up with post-Royal Commission campaigns. None that “get” the job needed as much as this one. I’m so glad Joe Hawkins, creative director at Wunderman Thompson Perth chose it as one of his ads that wowed.
Here are the three ads that have wowed him:
Your Speed is Shared for New Zealand Transport Agency. (Clemenger BBDO Wellington)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw4vltJk9c8
I’ve watched this a bunch of times. It makes me as uncomfortable now as it did the first time. By removing the driver from each car, your focus is purely on the passenger, their nervousness and silent fear. But also their unwillingness to speak up, even though they’re clearly crapping it.
It also feels like a really fresh take on speeding. It’s not delivering the usual guilt and consequence messages. No big skids, rolling vehicles, ghosts or special effects. It’s as close to everyday real as it gets. Who hasn’t been a passenger in these sorts of situations?
I’m not sure if the spot is trying to get passengers to speak up more, or that drivers need to consider their passengers more. Either way, I hope it works.
Bankwest Sea of Sameness (Union)
This is a couple of months old now, but I still love it. It feels like the type of bank ad that every agency and creative would want to write, but no bank would ever buy.
Pulling the piss out of your competitors and their advertising methods may not be completely new (didn’t NAB ask us to break up with our banks a while ago?), but the way this has been done, and the attention to detail on the clichéd tropes feels bang on.
Given the public’s general distrust and dislike of banks, I’d imagine this’ll be working its socks off. Whether Bankwest can actually pull off the whole “less bank stuff” when it comes to the thing they actually do, who knows. I’m happy at ING, for the moment.
Traffic Jam Whopper for Burger King (We Believers)
Burger King has done it again. This time using technology, real-time data and commuter hunger to set up in-car burger deliveries to drivers stuck in bumper to bumper traffic. Watching the case study almost feels like a joke, until you realise they’ve been trialling this for over a month in Mexico City, online orders have risen over 60%, and they plan to roll it out in other choked up metropolises like LA and Shanghai. I’m rather grateful it’d never work in Perth.
