Alvin Koo's Blog

Upon crossing Kajsa Gatenbeck’s Blog about what determines a commercial’s success I began going through a list of commercials in my head that I could clearly recall. Surprisingly the first commercial I thought of was actually a whole string of commercials by Ally Bank. Their success in capturing my attention lies in two marketing factors.

First of all, from my perspective, these commercials did a great job targeting the economical factor of a consumer’s demographic. Ever since the global recession, consumers are becoming ever more sensitive to non-value added expenditures. They do not want to be hassled by their banks with service charges or strict requirements on minimum deposits and this list can surely go on and on. Ally Bank is positioning itself as the place people want to go to for honest and reliable financial services.

Secondly, the commercials really poked fun at the unethical behaviours and banking practices which we see as problems with the banking industry. To the people who lost life savings to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, unethical behaviour and corporate greed was surely to be blamed. The commercial made a satirical comparison that consumers are those vulnerable children whom the greedy banker preyed upon. It establishes a sense of commonality that consumers can relate to using their own experiences. I believe almost everyone had had their own experiences dealing with fine print or ridiculous restrictions, regardless of whether it happened in a bank or out in the supermarkets.

I would like to comment on a downfall of the commercials. The skit definitely “stole the show”, but it might have taken away too much of the viewer’s focus on Ally and their offerings. I also realized that the brand was only introduced in the last 5 seconds of the commercial. Entertaining? Yes. Effective? I don’t know.