veterans bank's radio ad

i'm impressed with the media weights of this radio ad - they have such high weights or this ad is stalking me as i hear the ad quite often.

it's good that even a small bank like veteran's bank has ad adveritising campaign. that's the way to fight the big banks. although the media weights of this ad while looks pretty good on its own, it is of course nothing compared to the big banks spending. but it's a good beginning.

what's not good about this ad is the commercial itself. all it talks about is that the bank serves the country's military veterans and then goes on to talk about how it wants to serve every filipino as it believes "every filipino is a hero". that's the tag line.

i completely do not get this ad. what is the objective of the ad? given the copy, most of it is geared towards building brand awareness on the bank. ok, i'm on that. building brand awareness is a legitimate advertising and marketing objective.

then it goes into a pitch to get new clients and this is the part where i think it fails miserably. it wanted to do that to use an emotional appeal on nationalism or pride as a filipino by saying every filipino is a hero. really? that pitch sounds good on paper, but i don't think it's at all meaningful to the general banking public. honestly, would you open a bank account with a bank on the basis of it making you feel good about being a hero?

it sounds poetic and all but i don't think that's in the top 100 attributes people look for in a bank. not even top 500 attributes. thoughts and ideas that sound good don't necessarily mean it will sell and certainly does not give it any license to be included in ads.

i did say building brand awareness is a legitimate advertising objective, but if that's it all does, then that ad is a WAWAM!. brand awareness is good but the true reason for being for ads is to get consumers to take action, the action of buying your product or service. we don't want consumers to just know your brand, we want consumers to buy your brand or service.

i think what this advertising forgot is this --- it's supposed to sell a product and the product they are selling is so weak, it does not have anything worth asking consumers to buy into. niche marketing is another valid marketing positioning, but i don't think "bank for heroes" counts for niche marketing.

and that is what veterans bank should be doing - retool their bank, reposition it and take on a niche marketing strategy. and this niche marketing strategy should not just be based on an advertising or emotional niche (bank for heroes) but offering bank products that offer niche benefits.

all is not lost. the ad would have generated pride and loyalty among its current user base. but that's all it has done. while the ad may have prevented current clients to close their accounts, i doubt if this ad was able to get new clients.

the only party happy about this ad is the ad agency of veterans bank because they are earning revenues. but that doesn't change things, it's a WAWAM!


(ps: i get the feeling this is another sideline ad. but i could be wrong. anyone know who the ad agency is?)