YouTube – New Commonwealth Bank Ad 2008

I don’t think the Commonwealth Bank of Australian made any friends when they engaged the services of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (USA), to develop their new advertising campaign.

In fact, you could say, the big Australian Advertising Agencies were really p*#sed-off.

But now the TV commercial has been launched, the buzz is: What the hell were they thinking?

I think their slogan "Determined to be different" doesn’t resonate with me – It’s a boring bank and it just does not fit with the current CBA image!

As marketers and advertisers, we should know that to reposition a large iconic brand such as the CBA is an expensive and time consuming project.

Just changing a tagline is not going to change consumers perception of the bank and using dated eighties Australian images such as Croc Dundee, Koalas and Mad Max may infact offend potential Comm Bank customers.

Now, if the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is really determined to be different, why didn’t they use a regional advertising agency. Now that would be bloody different…just image the CBA announcing the appointment of Sticky Advertising, a small advertising agency based in Newcastle to develop their next campaign. That’s different!

For a big ozzie corporate to look to the USA, is not being different – looking and trusting highly trained talent in Australia and especially regional Australia…IS!

TJAY00 posted the commercial on YouTube, so have a look and decide for yourself:)