#OrchidsandOnions: Investec's elegant dance - A masterclass in sophisticated financial advertising
Rainy day
Putting something away for a rainy day was something my mother instilled in us from an early age. The only time I deviated from that path was before I got a formal job and was running around the bush as a national service soldier. At the end of 18 months in uniform, I barely had two pennies to rub together.
However, as retirement looms on the horizon, I have been paying particular attention to the sort of financial ads which for years made no impact on me.
The stereotypical investment ad these days reminds you not to think short-term, because building your little nest egg takes time. That, of course, is a nice cop-out for the fund managers when they tell you about the ups and downs of the market. Funnily enough, most banks and investment houses don’t offer to split the difference with you when it comes to losses…
What I hadn’t thought about at all was whether I wanted to have anything like a relationship with the people who manage my little rainy day insurance. I’ve been quite happy to get updates every now and then from them but see no real reason to do that more than once a year.
However, there are, clearly, those who are far more proactive than I am – and it is those people who are being targeted by Investec’s latest, very elegant ad.
It’s called Mirrors and it poses the scenario of a client meeting her banker and how they challenge each other to meet the other’s expectations.
It’s a dance – using two talented dancers – which begins with curiosity and even suspicion but which blossoms into an intricate pas de deux, where there is a mutually beneficial partnership.
It’s a “Partnership of Equals” as the campaign goes…
It’s sophisticated, it’s clever and, apart from its elegance, it’s subtle. With the target market in mind, you don’t need to shout.
Orchids, then, for Investec, its agency Leagas Delaney as well as Darling Films and director Slim.
Design not dead
It’s not often these days that a piece of design catches my eye – especially one in that supposedly “dinosaur” medium of print. But Puma’s striking execution for its Ultra range of football boots provides an image which sticks in your mind, as opposed to flitting into the middle distance as it might in a video execution.
The colours are attractive, yet subtle and the two catchlines – “Forever. Faster” and “Fuel your fast” mesh perfectly.
Thanks, Puma, you get an Orchid for reminding us that advertising design is not dead yet – especially in static form.
Recycled ideas
When I looked at the Clear Score ads featuring the boxer dog, I groaned because I wondered if the credit assessment organisation’s ad agency had run out of ideas and hoped that it could recycle Toyota’s iconic “Buddy” without anyone noticing.
Perhaps they thought a talking dog worried about its rubber ducky pal Squeaky might raise a giggle or two. Nope. It’s just silly in an irritating way, not the entertaining way Toyota’s canine marketer was.
Then I discovered that this ad doesn’t even seem to be South African in origin. I found it on a Clear Score Canada YouTube channel when it ran five years ago. So, all that happened was the local Clear Score folks just replaced the white dude in the ad with a black dude.
Then, I wondered where the Canadians got their idea from…
Whatever the origins of the ad, surely the Clear Score people here would have worried about the spectre of Toyota’s Buddy and said: Let’s do our own thing…
After Buddy, it just looks lame, so you get an Onion, Clear Score.
