TD Bank is a major banking institution on both sides of the US-Canada border. In the country where it founded the company, the Toronto-based company is one of the five largest banks, while it ranks in the top ten in the US by values. While other advertisers test their new ideas in global markets before bringing them to the United States, TD Bank has a major non-US market to use as an advertising playground.
That’s the case with two efforts TD Bank recently launched in Canada: an “Own It” campaign promoting the bank’s new fractional equity investment product and a “Visible Billboards” activation raising the profile of one of the company’s targeted initiatives towards the goal. . Both speak to how banking and the role of financial institutions have changed for younger and more diverse consumers.
“The way you use that physical presence today is very different from the way we used to be, and we need to grow and be with our customers and our prospects where they are,” said Tyrrell Schmidt, global chief marketing officer.
Breaking barriers
Fractional stocks are an example of how investments change. The first such offering from one of the big five banks, the product allows consumers to buy and sell part of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – giving investors access to blue chip stocks at a lower price. The product is aimed at Gen Z and millennial consumers who are new to investing or think it’s out of reach.
To promote fractional shares, TD Bank teamed up with Ogilvy Canada for “Own It,” a humorous 60-second spot that focuses on a quirky young investor who fully embraces the perks of part-owning an airline, a a baseball team, a space company, and a space company. entertainment corporation. In the latter case, Partial Shares takes the character into the setting of a fantasy epic.
“The old concept of right product, right time, right customer through the right channel still really exists,” Schmidt said of the fractional share marketing approach.
“We look at the overall customer experience. What we know is simple, communication matters. Banking can be complicated, and people want to really understand what you’re telling them,” the executive continued. “[“Own It”] it’s just a great example of having someone come in and demonstrate in a relatively easy way, but easy to understand and digest.”
For Ogilvy, the partial shares provided an opportunity to create publicity around a truly differentiating product, which is not always the case in Canadian banks. The agency wrote a script that focused on a fish-out-of-water character who pushes her limits because she’s so excited to get over a barrier. The tone is playful, but not slapstick.
“We have something called ‘grounded optimism’ with TD, where we like to exaggerate and be a little hyperbolic, but never in a way that’s so absurd or so far from reality that everyday Canadians don’t can see in it. ” said Francesco Grandi, creative director of Ogilvy Canada.
Intentional innovation
While Partial Shares and the “Own It” campaign aim to make banking more accessible to younger consumers, a different effort by TD Bank aims to make it more accessible to a smaller subset of consumers: consumers who are visually impaired and, in especially, colorblind consumers.
“Visible Billboards” was launched in Toronto’s Distillery District on September 6th, Color Blindness Awareness Day. The out-of-home ads are done in the color-dot style used in color-blind tests, but in a twist, the message — “If you can see it, it’s because we see you” — is visible only to color-blind viewers.
TD Bank’s “Visible Billboard” ads have a message that is visible only to color blind viewers.
Courtesy of TD Bank
The billboard effort was inspired by the TD Accessibility Adapter, an online tool that allows disabled users to make the Internet more accessible and responsive to their preferences. Originally developed as an internal tool, TD Bank has made it widely available as a Chrome extension.
“We are always thinking about innovation with a purpose. That has always been what we are as a brand: to be able to really empathize and show the human side of banking, understanding the person behind it,” said Schmidt.
TD Bank has a legacy of being open and accessible to diverse consumers. The bank helped make Toronto Pride one of the largest pride events in the world and supported Indigenous banks and women in leadership. Despite the fact that we do 30 to 40 initiatives a year, advertising is rarely part of the strategy, said Ogilvy’s Grandi.
“I almost make so much of it that I don’t know where to put the spotlight,” the executive said. “As their agency partners, we’re always trying to tell them, ‘This is a really good story you should tell.’
A North American brand
While color blindness lends itself to creative out-of-home activation, future advertising around the TD accessibility adapter could focus on other conditions, such as dyslexia or epilepsy. And while it first launched in Canada, it could work in the U.S., perhaps as a takeover of Times Square in New York, Grandi said.
Such decisions, such as which campaigns will run in the US or Canada, make Schmidt’s job different from that of most brand marketers. However, TD Bank has a “North American brand at its core,” she said, that seeks to enrich the lives of customers, colleagues and communities — no matter where.
“Our brand promises to bring a humane, empathetic approach to banking that is consistent. Having those things sitting at the top of the house really matters, especially when you share a single border,” the executive said.
However, the US and Canada have different cultures, regulatory environments and competitive landscapes, preventing TD Bank from having a “one size fits all” approach to marketing.
“There’s a lot we’re doing, especially in areas where we’re thinking about citizenship and community that we’re bringing to life on both sides of the border,” explained Schmidt. “Where possible, we prefer to be able to find those things, but I think it’s important that there’s alignment at the top of the house.”
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