Straight to the bank

Today I’m touching on advertising in the banking industry, dividing a few of the worthy opponents into 3 categories:  the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD

The good has to be COMMERCIAL BANK OF AFRICA, for a successful rebranding from the blue logo to the current black and green logo. The bank even had trailers like a movie for their rebrand on major roundabouts in the city, and the rebrand is beautiful. The added boost was the television commercial to promote the rebranding. This tv commercial is about a middle-aged man who owns a small business and has a young family, his journey through time to his creating an empire, and finally as he picks up his son from school. The slogan they aptly used is ‘Time for more.’

8.5 out of 10.

THE BAD

This one goes to Barclays Bank, ‘…na tia/na bongo…’ In case you are wondering, this language is lingala, used in the 1995 tv commercial where Barclays animated an ATM (who doesn’t remember that ad?) which had serious dance moves that could rival a Koffi Olomide dance. I was in primary school then and it used to come during prime time, just before the news. It was very entertaining for its time.

For Barclays to use the same concept 17 YEARS LATER, but this time humans are dancing the same lingala is boring and tired. Barclays, a bank of such resources, who wants you to bank with said resources, has no resources to revamp its ads? Really? They NEED to really pull up their socks as far as advertising is concerned.

2 out of 10.

THE UGLY

The bad goes to Family Bank. Currently, Family Bank is running two t.v commercials. The first is about a girl in a shop calling her father repeatedly. Her father explains to her what the ideal, perfect family is. The worst thing about this advert is the voices. It is like they used voice overs which weren’t in sync with the character.

The second advert is about a young boy who is walking in the tea plantation and his grandfather explains to him how to pick the tea tree, then it ends with the boy saying kabisa. Some convoluted unrealistic story like that. I mean, why are they happy over tea? If this boy actually grew up around tea, wouldn’t he have known that by now? Why are people arbitrarily smiling? I get that adverts are supposed to make you want the product, but can they at least act like the audience is intelligent? The acting in this commercial is awful. The talent is of the basest level, the delivery poor and the general aestheticity is lacking. I mean, we can excuse it because Family Bank is relatively young, but…still.

3 out of 10.

In second place comes National Bank with their current advert of mobile banking. This is an UGLY ADVERT, hands down. The acting, of the father of the house is horrible. Ati his wife asks him for money and he answers, “Honey I’m not a bank,” in a voice that sounds like he has eaten a full bar of soap and bubbles are his new voice (pre-recorded yaani) all the while looking soap-opera cheesy (again with realism in ads).  The 1995 National Bank commercial was a brilliant advert which looked like the Safaricom ‘Niko na Safaricom’ one and had a majestic soundtrack: White Forest’s Sweet Lullaby. That ad could move you emotionally and make you want to walk to the nearest national Bank branch and open an account pap. The current commercial makes you want to cry and tell your Mama Mboga akuwekee pesa zako.

2 out of 10.

These banks should really consult Dr. Advice.

In general, what is it with ads and unrealistic parallel universe happiness and shallow plots, inappropriately lumped together with smiles for no reason? Maybe if they showed a few real stories (for instance, how children ACTUALLY talk, not like in a Spanish dubbed soap) or worked on, say, story development, then people would relate to them more, and they would hence be more effective…