CommBank reveals its new position: ‘Can’

“women don’t respond to black and yellow very well”

Adding blue hardly seems like an answer, but I am intrigued by the finding.

Big, bold, simple and effective. This is why M&C gets the big jobs.

But aren’t they now inextricably linked with the word ‘can’t’?

Also, bugger adding blue, just remove the black. And make the yellow a 2012 yellow. If such a thing exists.

CBA doubled the cost of their banking cheques from $5 to $10 bucks, because they CAN…

One-word campaigns are fraught I reckon. Before too long this will be bastardised to become a negative headline like “Commbank raises interest rates again? Yes they can”. Stupid.

Amazing that they got Toni Collette. A woman with principles; good choice.

CAN

For big brands that deliver many services, it’s a gigantic word which sets up a brand promise around customer service attitudes, delivery and satisfaction.

“Can” is a bit like the word “Yes” which Optus has been using as a core part of its brand positioning since 1992 (however Optus is a “challenger” not the no. 1)

It will be interesting to see how “Can” resonates with all CBA’s customer segments: retail, business and institutional – now it’s out of focus groups and in the field.

In this article Andy Lark makes the statement “We have no interest in winning awards. The only goal that matters is the balance sheet.” Hmmmm.

That’s an interesting quote. If CommBank’s brand value is listed under intangible assets on the CBA balance sheet, they are pretty sure to demonstrate ROMI in a year’s time if the bank’s velocity in the BrandZ study is anything to go by:

http://www.bandt.com.au/news/m.....-global-br

If however by “balance sheet” Lark is referring to customer acquisition numbers (as NAB evidenced as proof of effectiveness for the Break-Up campaign) then I’d be really interested to know what the expectations are for customer growth as a result of the repositioning and the “many many million” dollar marketing campaign.

Although I suspect that they “Can’t” say …

Great way to launch a new campaign. Love the poem, love the whole idea of
getting Toni Collette involved. Seems very ‘un-addy’ and I like that.

Toni collete is an interesting choice, I would have preferred not to see her face and hear her voice. The fact they mentioned blue for females in new direction makes me think she was chosen to appeal to the female audience mainly?

I look forward to seeing this roll out as it feels less BS than ‘determined to be different’. I hope it’s not all poems and serious because we need to laugh.

Side note: anyone with Singaporean friends or expats will find the ‘can’ line funny as that’s the usually affirmative response you hear there 🙂 want to go to lunch? Can!

Good old M&C. Always thinking beyond just the next campaign. CAN can – and will – go the distance. Because it owns a huge yet focused creative and emotional/philsophical territory for CBA. Vintage stuff.

And the legs on this idea go on forever. As a DM lead I’d love to get my hands on a clear, simple prop like this…

Simple big-brand stuff. Nice job guys.

I’d like to salute M&C’s work ethic.

It’s Sunday but they’re hard at the astroturfing, I see.

M&C have always pulled out the right campaign for the big brands time and time again. It’s no surprise they’re the first point of call for many big brands. The launch spot – beautiful. The follow up – let’s see how they back it up. Apparently Toni’s only in this one so it’ll be interesting to see how they go.

Very, very nice start though.

Or people genuinely like the idea, you cynical little can’t-er. LOL

@Davo – yeah, reckon you’re right. Comments #2, #10, #11 and #12 don’t smell right. To me that suggests an agency that is insecure about their work.

Davo clealy on the money … Pleasant but hardly earth shattering. Actually a liitle boring even with the impressive Toni Collette.

It’s arrogance for a utility like organisation to believe they are an important part of life decisions. No you’re not … You’re the bottle neck that makes reaching those milestones more stressful than they need to be. That’s why Determined to be Different was smart. It acknowledged customer cynicism and said you’d improve. We started to believe it too!

Arrogance and too much money CAN lose sight of reality.

Congrats to Mumbrella moderating on a Sunday! Impressive!

I’m a customer and a little disappointed CBA haven’t used Netbank (Internet banking) as a key launch pad for the campaign. It gets thousands/millions logging in on Sunday and is an absolutely world class platform yet not one message to me in there. Big missed opportunity for a captive and receptive audience. All I got was a boring takeover screen telling me they’ve changed the layout again.

No point having a focus on technology and balance sheet if you’re not thinking about using your influencers and advocates first.

Driving past bus stop after bus stop plastered with the word “CAN’T” in a predictable slab serif didn’t make me curious, it made me yawn. All that was going through my mind is “This is not clever it is overstated bait”.

Nice work.

‘can’ is about as differentiating as ‘real’. Not clever, and referring that often to research groups isn’t leadership. Not a complete waste of coin, but won’t build the CBA brand.

I wonder how much Toni Collette cost? Still it would be a pittance for the Commonwealth

@Ashley Ringrose. Good point, though CBA should have followed “Can” with the mysterious “Lah”. The next campaign will roll out tthe equally mysterious “also can”.

Commonwealth bank really helped those storm victims lose their homes And investment properties too. They ‘can’ compensate you if you complain loudly enough.

Agree that the Lark and/or Saatchi Astroturfing on mumbrella is dreadfully transparent. Guys next time be more subtle – your wanky language is a dead giveaway

Total total fail…I was loving the ad, amazed Toni Collette would associate herself with a cause…and genuinely expected it to be for CAN-TEEN…but no, bought by a bank…undid what for another “cause” or brand would be a brilliant ad. Prove me wrong Comm Bank – maybe women fall for this stuff but I sense they will feel maniuplated and used. Great ad for the wrong product IMHO….and I am a Comm Bank girl, from the early loyalty of school banking:)

‘Can’ is not a positioning. One word doesn’t make it tight!!! it makes it vauge, and a category generic. Why is CBA more ‘can’ than anyone else. Just evidence that many ad agencies don’t get positioning

I really like Tago Mago, and I really don’t like bees. So this justifies everything for me.

@Adam Joseph

A friedn of mine in ‘Gay Paris’ says Can Can dancers deliver “many services”…

friend…

So a totally unbranded ‘teaser’ campaign is followed up by a one minute ad which mentions the brand(only via the logo) in the last second of a 60 minute spot. What a waste of money.

“burp…”

i dont remember being paid for any of this shit??!!??!!??!!??

biggest turf delivery in years, even bigger than the super dry incident.

its ok, but for fucks sake. hardly worthy of all this carry on. good bad or otherwise.

guess nobody at M&C or ikon had a sunday given all the blog activity.

turf on……

Just saw the Toni Collette spot in a Masterchef break.
Loved Muriel’s Wedding. Love this spot.

Bring back the Dollarmites I say – animated rulers, personalized pencil cases and orange money boxes for all youtu.be/NW_Io-2Hs2Y

Creatively and conceptually it may work but in reality the bank will still be driven by its meaty bottom line and customers will still be bound by computer generated answers to customer requests, which makes the whole effort rather trite and meaningless. Can’t approve that overdraft. Can’t green light that mortgage application. Can’t open on Sundays. Can’t pass on the full RBA rate cut.

It’s being slaughtered on Twitter…

Was inspired until I realised it was an advertisement for a bank…worse… one of the big 4. Give me a break, what a ridiculous sentiment. The CBA have been screwing people for years. This campaign is already dead in the water.

This sounds like a rod for one’s back, unless CBA shareholders no longer wish to ream their customers.

Strategically identical to Westpac ‘we know how’. It’s just going to be executed more comprehensively through media and with better substantiation (IT/channels) etc.

Deserves credit – just like and actually a bit like Ted horton’s “we know how” for Westpac. – for at least coming from a good positive sentiment.

What I prefer about ted’s work here, and my criticism of this work is why bother spending over 40s saying what’s wrong with can’t.

If its a strong platform surely we could, and should, have had more of the can.

On a personal level, I find the whole teaser campaign a little self indulgent and very 1990s. And I find the emotional consumer identification (we understand your psyche and we are just like you) more than a little sick making and way too transparent. You can see the quant in toni’s eyes.

It wins on execution (if you forgive the missing branding) and wins on not trying to say “please like me” like all the other bank ads of the last 30 years (except Westpac).

But will it grow share? Will it keep unhappy customers? Probably not. Is it a reflection of a decent customer service ethic? Yes but the CEO deserves that credit.

Sorry but with the teaser, the app, the space Invaders game and the overall self indulgence of the media spend in difficult economic times it’s quite a big miss overall. Give it 5 out of ten.

As a regular consumer, my first thought is how much did Toni Collete cost/sell her soul for to be a part of this ad??? For customers being screwed by banks for every cent, I reckon there will be a backlash about a multi millionaire telling us that by using C’wth Bank “We Can!!” Not impressed- very very indulgent. “Davo’s Mate” is on the money- the bank is usually the one responsible when we “Can’t” with life’s big decisions.

After years of watching a brand jump all over the place, it’s nice to see a simple powerful platform for what I’m sure will be rolled out quickly and effectively. Well done!!

Great work M&C…it’s work like this that makes me grateful to have this agency’s brand on my CV – even if it was several years ago.

“Women don’t respond to black and yellow very well”

More like women don’t respond to banks that offer bad service & overcharge very well.

Colour does play a role in choice – that is nothing new – but it’s not an all determining factor, especially in financial management decisions and to imply otherwise is as ridiculous as this updated version of the UK “TSB” campaign, “The bank that likes to say yes”.

Way overdone……..and fails the basic credibility hurdle. Like it or not Andy, all 4 big banks are truly despised and we all understand that shareholders always come first. Why don’t you set out to show you CAN, then tell us about it after. Might make it more believable, and less of a giant circle jerk.

At least the NAB campaign was a bit interesting, even though it suffered the same credibility issues.

Am I the only one (irrespective of whether I’m wearing my ‘marketing’ hat or ‘consumer’ hat) that finds the notion of ‘branding’ amongst the Big 4 totally redundant? There’s no incentive to be loyal to one bank over another. You don’t get rewarded for being a long-term customer. There’s essentially no differentiation between them, aside from +/-0.1% on your mortgage / term deposit, which varies monthly depending on which way the wind blows.

If I was a Commbank customer or shareholder I’d be disappointed to see “many many millions” spent on another major brand positioning campaign to boost the ego of the new CMO.

“The only goal that matters is the balance sheet.” – Right, well good luck with that.

“We believe in print.” – Wow, you’re one of the very few..

It is nice to see some really concerted astroturfing – well done Saatchi and CommBank.

I particularly like this campaign because it allows lame jokes like this:

CommBank are a bunch of complete cants.

This has just reminded me of the movie The Negotiator. The scene where Samuel Jackson tells the negotiator never to say “No” to a hostage taker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGsRZBB2k74

I’m sure all CBA staff have been shown this video and told from now on never to say “Can’t” to a customer. Otherwise, it’s inconsistent with the brand, right?

@CBAye – yes, more ‘kicks’ to be had with your mention than with the TVC.

@Gail – you nailed it.

epic fail… the can’t will resonate with every failure to pass on the flu interest rate cut, the tele will love it!

“She grew up in Blacktown, her father was a truck driver…” Wow, that must have been hard.

Yeah and surely we can all think beyond the one launch ad here. They’ve nailed a property that has massive scope for future ads – many of them. Really they’re owning an ethos for CBA. It’s not just about the 1st TVC.

The “whatiscant” website – using the word “CAN” 37 times in total – slight overkill?

underwhelming for me I’m afraid but its early days in how this will roll out.

just doesn;t seem to be that interesting an idea, too ambiguous, lofty without being profound.

yeah, not for me

*sniff sniff*

Davo #13, I think you’re on the money. Something here stinks… and it’s not just this campaign.

Why not go utilise their preexisting distinctive assets?

Which Bank? Commonwealth Bank.

Why is she dressed like a bank teller – I couldn’t really get over that – and the fact I was being read a bed-time story.

Now an ad that talked about reinvesting profits back to customers – that’s an ad I’d like to see!

My partner watched the ad and got really excited by it. I knew what was coming, but thought I’d wait for her reaction.

When she realised it was a bank ad, she seemed genuinely betrayed. “Why the f*** would Toni Collete do something like that?” From a woman who rarely swears. She truly hated it.

Then she started ranting about an incident in here teens when CommBank overdrew her account with fees and then charged her a hefty overdrawn fee.

From what I’ve seen online, her reaction was not atypical. Social media is destroying this badly conceived campaign.

It now reads almost like a question due to logo placement, CAN Combank?… Can they win people over with a change in their ad…no, maybe they can look at improving their services

What is thirsty hungry?

Wow – I dont like it at all. A bit over the big 4 talkin gabout how they are all about customers or different when they do not deliver on what they are saying. Yes its a nicer experience when you walk in a branch but it ends there. There is noone out there really operating with people as their focus so this is just rubbish.

Way too much positive comments on here. Smells like turfing.

WONT

Ahem. Not even Toni Collette can get me to love a bank. They waste all this money trying to get us to love them rather than being actually loveable. The campaign, on a technical level, is fine, but they have to back it up by not being jerks. Which banks find hard.

I’ve got to say that I really like this. I’ve heard of and seen a few examples of M&C Saatchi’s philosophy of ‘Simplicity’, so hats off to all involved for this execution. There’s no doubt that owning a single word is a smart strategy. The fact that this is now etched in our own minds after a mere 12 hours is testament to that. Before all the naysayers try and kill this, we should all keep in mind that the purpose of this ad is to establish the foundation for Commbank’s future communication. We now know the word they want to own, and also the sentiment, so let’s sit back and see how they now evolve it and bring it to life. Looking forward to it.

I think the ad is well done, the teaser campaign was interesting, I like Toni Collette. But at the end of the day, it’s a big branding campaign for a bank. And no amount of celebrity or positive messaging will change the fact that it’s a bank. A big, greedy, evil bank. At least I know where all my bank fees are being spent though. Commbank customer since 1992.

Doesn’t hit the mark for me. Full disclosure, I work for a competitor but I have been following the pre-launch activity and was expecting something quite big from CBA.

Instead we get a twee poem read by an awkward Toni Collette.

The concept of ‘Can’ is too broad and generic, and the digital support is simply a rehashing of existing assets without much explanation as to why they exemplify ‘Can’.

Will be interesting to see where they go from here, but so far I’m not blown away.

Waste of money and more annoying than anything else.
_ I have some more????????

Quite frankly, I don’t give a toss about all this ridiculous hype, or who they pay millions of dollars to communicate it. Until a bank, that earns billions of dollars a year, can change the interest earned on my mortgage to be considerably less that the actual loan itself then I might consider them even vaguely concerned about “how we really stand for something in people’s lives and articulate our role in helping them move forward in life’s journey?”.

This comment particularly addressed to ‘Davo’ and ‘I P Police”:
A whole lot of people make positive comments and they are ‘astroturfing’.
A whole lot of people make negative comments and they are all genuine.
Until the cowardly shroud of anonymity is lifted we’ll never really know.

If only their word was WILL… I am well aware of what the big (stinking, filthy, evilempire) banks can do…. not so sure about what the WILL do.

Waiting for the Youtube mashup of Toni Collette, Can’t->Can, and United States of Tara… We’re are all the creatives when you need them?

That would be Where not we’re, of course….

What CAN they do? Waste way too much money on a feelgood campaign that is going to backfire? The poem may have sold the idea to CBA but it won’t sell to the public. Also, lucky they got partnered with the Courier Mail, maybe it will prevent a “CAN put up interest rates” headline, but not for long. Maybe I’m too close to the industry, but all this build up for a poem?! If they had of launched with a 0.5 or 1% rate cut we’d probably have seen some serious switching!

This is simple Nauseating. It’s talks to me like I’m a small child or some kind of moron. Made by people (banks and advertising folks) that treats everyday people like total CUN_S.

Sunday’s astroturfing is hilarious. If you hold a mortgage and don’t hold shares in one of the big four, you hate them, regardless of the roadblock of condescension (and why exactly is Toni Collette s credible by the way? Something to do with Blacktown or something? Is it a woman thing, such as liking the colour blue?). While THEY can take the T off CAN’T, I and many other young miscreants roaming the streets can change the A into a U and throw an S on the end. Quite a basic thing, but when it comes to a bank I would not have made so prominent the letters C, N & T…

The pure ridiculousness and scripted feel of the turfing comments above are laughable…

Coming from a large advertising agency, I’m sure they were pre-written, approved by the client and distributed to Saatchi employees weeks ago.

That’s how you control and drive engagement isn’t it?? :p

@talkingboonie: especially the prominence given to women’s views in the focus group research… might come back to bite them several centimetres further south

Deidre Chambers! What a coincidence!

I Can’t believe Toni Collette sold out
I Can’t believe they thought it would be a good idea to do the ad in rhyme
I Can’t stand the commercial
I Can’t see what they are actually trying to tell us

I Can believe this took a lot of smooth talking from Saatchi
I Can see people getting p!ssed off with all banks as a result of this campaign
I Can see this falling flat on it’s face

Should have lead with a campaign entitled; ‘FAIL’ – would have been more authentic and in tune with customer perception of how banks perform. Agree with many of the others, this will prove to be a rod for their back when they announce new record profits, hike up rates and on charge fees – its so comforting for so many who are big 4 customers to know such expensive exercises are being undertaken to define who your banking institution really is and of course what colours appeal to females – invaluable research. ‘Comm Bank – self interested about your money’

You’ve got to praise him for honesty. “We have no interest in winning awards” [or what anyone thinks about us]. “The only goal that matters is the balance sheet.”
At a time when all the other banks try and con us into thinking they care about us, he’s switched the focus back to what matters to them – making the most money.

I loved the ad. Beautiful copy, beautfully performed. (How long since we’ve fallen in love with the copy on an ad? Thought it must have been a classic poem, but I’m pleased to hear it was specially written by the agency)

It DID make me feel warmer about the bank! while the ‘teaser’ posters weren’t intriguing to me (although the guessing games on Mumbrella were..) this ad feels like the start of bigger and better things to come. And it’s a refreshingly positive message, when other brands (banks in particular) play on the negatives (NAB: we’re ‘breaking up’ with those other b@$tards)

Good on CommBank for going big, bold and positive.

*Not a client, an agency nor an employee of CommBank

CAN pointlessly add to air pollution and traffic by driving diesel trucks around with big letters on the back.

Surely mobile billboards just create negativity, especially when advertising a bank.

Where is the colour blue they keep talking about?

Toni Collette? Couldn’t they afford The Mentalist guy?

So Toni was the 2nd choice, there was another australian that was their orginal pick but did not resonate with australians and in fact did not polarise’, my money is on Hugh Jackman…any other guesses?

You know what would have won me over? A simple ad telling me that they actually care enough about customers to NOT spend “many many millions” on a stupid campaign and put it back into lowering fees or doing the right thing by customers.
I’ve recently had a really good experience with CBA (they refunded a buttload of fees to me because I complained) and all the warm and fuzzies I had for the bank has been undone by this campaign.
They care enough about the consumer to know that women don’t like yellow and black yet completely fail to recognise that we don’t care about overpriced crap like this?
Put money where mouth is and do things FOR consumer not insulting consumer.

Also, the last time I cared about a teaser campaign was when I was trying to figure out “Lulu, is that you?” of course I was 5 at the time….

“Creative agency”…can we be a bit more liberal with the word “creative”, especially when it comes to terrible ads based off of one word?

Oh, and in addition to the above? This ad is friggin awful. Just awful. Anyone disagreeing must be on the payroll.

How does Toni Collette reading DR SEUSS make me want to change banks?

The editorial around this campaign is a little on the nose from BnT and SMH….and others.

I wonder how those publishers could in fact have written anything but a glowing review considering the obviously huge amounts CBA is spending with them on advertising.

omG! I love it.

Unless the campaign included the power of dance, Hugh was never going to be a taker.

‘Can’ as a brand promise, with absolutely no reason to believe? Could one of the other Big 3 say “we can too”, Sure they could. Not ownable. Not unique. Poor work. Sorry

So its true, money (for ad campaigns) CAN’T buy love (from your customers).

all the other banks can’t > CBA can??

i did NOT see that coming!!!

dull, and until they spend invest in fixing their customer service, a waste of money. even toni collette can’t drown out millions of people comparing their CBA battle stories. (i would still marry her though)

Derper you are a dickhead.on the basis of that argument the media would totally support every major advertiser in their papers.I don<t see the tele going easy on bashing the supermarkets yet coles and woolies spend vastly more than CBA..

Have you people got nothing better to do?Bit sad really.

“I wonder how those publishers could in fact have written anything but a glowing review considering the obviously huge amounts CBA is spending with them on advertising.”

And you wonder why people are switching off MSM in droves….

The parasite is killing the host.

HAHA This is my favourite:

95. the worker
29 May 12
8:17 am

Have you people got nothing better to do?Bit sad really.

the world needs a “Nimble” bank

So. Comm bank CAN. BUT. Dick DOES. Are these not one and the same idea? WESTPAC WILL anyone?

Someone should show this to the folks who penned the stupid “Be bold” screed for Blackberry, as it is everything the Blackberry effort is not.

‘can’ = ‘determined to be the same’

W-estpac – Won’t
A-NZ – Aren’t
N-AB – Needn’t
C-BA – Can’t

Banks, like many ad agencies, do not really give two hoots about society. Therefore campaigns like this will often backfire, especially in this climate with digital social networks, with the public knowing that they couldn’t care less about them.

The big four:
W.A.N.C

“C’mon folks,move on …nothing more to see here!”

Seems pretty clear that the people dissing this are looking at it from a short term tactical point of view, as a one-off. They probably see themselves as strategic heavyweights, but aren’t.

If you start to think about how this positioning could be built on over an extended period of years, then you really see it’s merit.

I think M&C have a done a great job here, and also the client as well, to buy into an idea far bigger than the next six months dross like the rest.

We should be judging this next year, rather than now.

Yes ultimately they are a bank. So what, a sugary drink is a sugary drink. It’s always been the role of marketing to sell the upside. If you don’t like that, get out of the industry.

Former bank marketer I think it’s you who sees himself or herself as a strategic heavyweight, but isn’t .

Ask joe average what the last 3 cba campaigns were and they would not have a bloody clue

Archie,

Maybe that’s why they changed agency?

Is it just me or anyone else removed the apostrophe?

CANT : insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.

Adgrunt what I mean is that the view that consumers recall and connect previous ads is unrealistic and merely an adland conceit

For all the debate over whether an actor reading Dr Zeus, or if a teaser campaign was a steal from someone else. Or if anyone could remember any of the CommBanks last 4 campaigns despite spending bazillions (I cant !).

The real question is twofold. 1-Would any of this make me more loyal if i was a CommBank customer, and 2-Would it make me more disposed to consider switching if i was not.

Aside from the colours of their logos all the big banks are the same. A bunch of greedy oligopolists, that have no need to worry about competition. They could do no advertising, and they would still make mega billions in profit.

There is no need to research anything, as people hate them all. Whether they CAN or CANT or Live in our World, or any other irrelevant rubbish. Just as you CAN’T polish a turd, you also cannot make one taste any better with choc icing. A turd is a turd.

If a bank really wanted to do something to address my 2 key issues above, it would need to give me the consumer something that i want, that the other 3 banks are not.

AUTHENTICITY (Being true it’s brand)
INNOVATION (Constantly changing for the betterment of its customer base, cut fees, cut rates, better service)
DIFFERENTIATION (Being really different than the others, passing on full rate cuts etc…)

And once the Bank 2.0’s offer had been reformed, the advertising message that would best carry this would be one of “CHANGE YOUR BANK”

We changed our Bank, now you should change yours”.

If a big 4 bank did this then I and probably 50% of bank customers would change too.

“The bank has also ditched its helvetica typeface in favour of Aachen. And it has added blue to its yellow and black colour palette. Lark said: “We discovered women don’t respond to black and yellow very well.”

Now the above is exactly what i was referencing. Would i be more loyal because of Aachen ? And would i switch my current bank because of a bit of blue in their colour palette. Choc icing anyone.

“WE CHANGED OUR BANK. NOW YOU SHOULD TOO.” TM me !

This ad seeks to emotionally appeal to us by reminding us of our very own sense of free will in the life decisions we all have to make. This is a beautiful message. However, the usage of ‘can’ and the ideals of the poem become absolutely meaningless as we come to understand that the CBA seeks to increases it’s members by the falsehood of appealing to an audiences virtue.

‘Can’ do with out.

This is because the bank assumes that our ‘can’ decisions, our free will need to be supported by a range of new bank services. It pigeon holes us and makes us believe that a
It attempts to inspire us but all the while it’s brand is hidden until the ‘ T’ replaced.

Only just seen this. What a stinker on every possible level. Worst ad of the year so far.

“Can” .. an outdated campaign stollen from the Obama election mantra of “Yes we Can” .. really original M&C and totally inappropriate for a bank, like the rest of them, that continually behave in a “can’t” like manner … changing just one little letter … oh dear … Don’t even get me started of the waste of money hiring Toni for the gig .. WT?

CAN could be a workable campaign if the CBA actually had changed it’s methods of making its customers more satisfied. Who knows maybe that is going to come out in the subsequent ads, but i’m not holding my breath.

But if it doesn’t really do something unbank like then CAN is just like KFC making ads telling us it is a slimming aid.

A more honest reveal campaign would be the A turning into a U and adding an S at the end.

Releasing a campaign with a negative BOLD word, and then erasing the ‘T was just plain insulting. Regardless of the agency patting themselves on the back, for a supposed job well done, will it change the banks profit-stealing behaviour? Doubt it. Will it make banking with them (or the big four for that matter) more likeable and a trusting experience? Doubt it also.

Appreciate this is a customer acquisiton campaign. Interesting how there is no customer retention campaign – particulary as customers are increasginly unhappy and will certainly be taking up the new ops to make it easier to move.

Bob the Builder already has the jump on CBA. Dude has owned the phrase “Yes We Can” for at least 10 years, yo.

“Which Bank” to me is probably their most memorable line.

The “determined to be different” thing was a total joke. Like the little puffing train, going “I think I can, I think I can!” Determined? Why not just BE different?? “But people might expect us to be different when maybe we can’t! Let’s just say we want to try to be different.” So lame.