Barclaycard Wears a Bathing Suit, Without Getting All Wet

For some reason, financial services companies in the US -- other than Capital One Financial Corp. -- don't have a sense of humor. Considering the new Bank of America Corp. TV ads that have started appearing over the last few days. They are all tug-at-the-heartstrings with not a drop of humor to be found.

Well, it's different in Europe, where financial services companies' advertising is alight with fun. Take Barclaycard, the credit card company. Last fall it introduced an ad in which an actor "waterslides" home for its contactless technology. The ad showcases how the card can be used to buy, say, a banana as the cardholder waterslides through a supermarket. It's a delightful ad, so much so that Barclaycard then added a "making of" video on YouTube in addition to the actual ad. (We've added all these videos to BankInnovation.net.)

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These efforts, in turn, have kicked off a viral marketing craze. Barclaycard created a competition. The maker of the best spoof video of a waterslide using a Barclaycard wins a "waterslide world tour." Submissions are due March 22; votes can be cast on YouTube starting March 23. There are already several dozen spoof videos up on YouTube, and some are great, such as this one. There's also a -- get this -- make-a-waterslide online game. Not surprisingly, the waterslide is a central part of Barclaycard's marketing for the contactless technology.

Barclaycard is even kicking it up beyond just this waterslide theme. Barclaycard says it will use its Barclaycardcreate site on YouTube to take the idea of fun, viral marketing further: "The Barclaycard waterslide competition is just the beginning - we'll be updating the Barclaycardcreate channel regularly with lots of stuff we hope you'll find entertaining."

Besides being greatly entertaining, the actual Barclaycard ad and all its derivative videos have been viewed about 1.2 million times on YouTube, by my count. And that is before the voting on the best spoof ads for the competition. This is viral marketing at its best, and it blows away all marketing efforts currently underway by any financial services company in the US.

That's how Barclaycard can wear a bathing suit, without getting all wet.

Tags: bank-marketing, barclaycard, capital-one, tv

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Comment by Roger Craven on March 10, 2009 at 1:05pm: Can't be many Fin Serv brands that can claim to have created a film spin off. The "Johnny English" film starring Rowan Atkinson (of Mr Bean fame) was based on the character created in Barclaycard ads of the 1980s and 90s. Barclaycard has a long pedigree of "funny ads"
Back in the 90s Barclays Bank did no other TV advertising for traditional banking services as in research the difference between the claimed customer experience in the bank ads and the real experience of banking was so big that the adverts put existing customers off. Only Barclaycard actually delivered a customer experience that did not alienate its customers.... hmmm.... public alienated by their every day experience of bankers and banking...... some things don't change.

Comment by Seth Crews on March 10, 2009 at 1:16pm: The Capital One ads have gotten a little stale. I have to say i wasn't sure where they were going with the ad at first but this really is genius -- and it makes contact-less payments look fun, easy, and waterproof? :) Not sure i'd buy a banana on a waterslide, but i think the underlying message is "slick" pardon the pun.

Rowan Atkinson should be in more ads. I always enjoyed Mr. Bean. He once did a skit playing invisible drums that was absolutely hilarious.

Comment by Michael Bina on March 10, 2009 at 1:35pm: I'd hire Bean in a NY minute, but I'm a small bank. How do I get get a good chuckle out of THIS market while on a budget?

Comment by JJ Hornblass on March 10, 2009 at 2:13pm: Michael, I'd say the first step is just trying to not being too bland. We have a sister ad agency to BankInnovation.net called Royal Media Creative. One of our clients is a bank and we have tried to talk them about adding some creativity to their marketing. They are sticking with the old and traditional. You can only push so hard.

Comment by Eric Meyerson on March 10, 2009 at 2:17pm: Washington Mutual was the only national/super-regional FI that has run funny ads in recent years, mostly at the expense of those nasty, stodgy old white-guy "bankers" who would deny you a loan or try to charge you fees for their services.

Kind of ironic now.

An example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ7EIKbnnkw

Comment by JJ Hornblass on March 10, 2009 at 2:22pm: Here is the live link to the ad Eric's referring to, for your clicking pleasure.

Comment by Neil Robinson on March 11, 2009 at 5:11am: I'd like to suggest to Michael that you may be looking at Barclaycard's ad in the wrong way.

Sure its a great ad, its funny and probably cost millions to produce. But what is it for?

Its to promote Barclaycard's touchless technology (recently enhanced by a deal with telecom provider Orange, by the way). The point I'm making is its all about product.

Barclaycard's market share is enormous so their marketing effort reflects that. the market expects wham-bam big name feature campaigns and high profile marketing.

As a small bank, you have the greatest hand of cards to play at the moment. You have the respect of your customers and have escaped the cancer that has attacked the credibility of all the big players.

So, you can capitalise on your "not too big to be corrupt but strong enough to trust" card. This is a great message to take to your market using smaller social marketing techniques. This is an opportunity missed by so many. The big players hide from your customers and with good cause. Is your CEO getting attacked in the street and spat on by passers by?

I'd guess he's not!

Grab the initiative and engage closely with your market. Take local TV ads, stress your strengths, even parody the Barclaycard campaign or WAMu's, or Citi's.

Tell your customers you give the bonuses to them, not your execs.

Why not commission an ad showing the guy sliding down a chute and landing in a dumper (we call them skips in the UK), then say "we treat you better"?

Show one of your staff giving a customer a life jacket and say "we'll make sure you stay afloat".

Remember, part of Barclaycard's play involves cheap little YouTube adverts too. Are you guys doing that?