The Good #1: Good Marketing Makes Me Happy

Having been interested in marketing since I was just five years old (seriously), for as long as I can remember, good marketing has made me happy. What I mean by that is campaigns that are both relevant and creative always have struck a chord with me. This quite often physically manifests itself as a smile on my face and a warm feeling all over. In my opinion, good marketing can truly be that “good.” And it most always turns out to be effective, too.

From a consumer products perspective, think about Coke. Two great examples include the recent polar bear commercials and the classic “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” campaign. It’s probably a safe bet that you have a smile on your face right now thinking about either or both of those!

In financial services, the number of campaigns worthy of such praise do seem a bit more few and far between. By far, the one that most comes to mind as almost perfect is “Priceless,” by MasterCard. Started in 1997, it is a simple, meaningful and versatile expression of the brand. Additionally, “Priceless” has the added benefit of becoming “viral” before viral was cool. Parodies proliferated, which only brought more attention to the brand. The campaign is so valuable that MasterCard actually has trademarked the word “Priceless.”

MasterCard’s main competitor, Visa, currently features its “Go” campaign, which does not seem to have caught on with the same enthusiasm as “Priceless.” Personally, I am a great fan of Visa’s earlier “Everywhere you want to be,” which for me conjured up images of all the great places I would want to travel.

In the banking world, my favorite of the majors probably has been “Citi never sleeps,” primarily for the play on words and connotation that the bank is working diligently to create a better financial future.

In the asset management world, “Talk to Chuck” from Charles Schwab became especially relevant during the financial meltdown. It made that company seem more approachable, like someone that you could sit down and chat with.

Oddly enough, the financial firms that seem to have had the most success with creative marketing are those one would think to be the stuffiest: insurance companies. Perhaps the most enduring and beloved icon of all time is Snoopy, for MetLife, in use publicly since 1985 and under contract until at least 2012. (Full disclosure, I once worked for MetLife.) More recent examples include the Geico gecko and the Aflac duck. Perhaps it is the inherent expectation that insurance companies will be boring that inspires their marketing staff to push the boundaries and create truly remarkable campaigns that resonate with their clients.

Of course, the above are examples of major, often global campaigns. Many of the happiest moments in my career have been in finding an amazing venue for a client event, selecting an amazing photograph that truly captures the essence of a marketing piece, picking the perfect client gift for a trade show, devising an innovative awareness campaign that results in an enthusiastic response rate, writing a tagline for an ad that succinctly conveys the benefits of a new product, etc.

So my question to all of you out there is, “What are examples of ‘Good’ financial marketing that have made you happy?”

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Good. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.