The rise and fall and rise again… of white men in finance ads
At Mumbrella’s Finance Marketing Summit 2019, Getty Images’ Kate Rourke unveiled the surprising results of research into the visual trends in the sector – and how companies can ensure they are relevant and trustworthy.
Getty Images coined a term for the resurgence of caucasian, middle-aged males dominating banking ads during the 2008 financial crash. “We call him Guru Joe,” explains Kate Rourke, the photo giant’s senior manager of creative insights.
Click here to download the full results in Getty Images’ Financial Services Visual Trends Report whitepaper.
Guru Joe’s return from outdated irrelevance wasn’t as illogical as you’d think. In the years prior, the industry was shuffling towards modernising its communications to reflect the lives its customers actually led. But when the world economy fell off a cliff in 2008, marketers and agencies decided the public secretly yearned for a return to the safe familiarity of what came before. “The message was ‘Don’t worry, we’ve been through this,’” says Rourke. “Unfortunately, it didn’t resonate.”
Click right to download the full results in Getty Images’ Financial Services Visual Trends Report whitepaper.
