Being a marketer for a bank, I end up looking at competition communication often. I have always loved advertisements, especially the witty and insightful ones. I realized that I am yet to come across any Personal Finance blogger talking about some of the wonderful work done by the industry so far and decided to use this post to list down some of the most memorable Personal Finance advertisements that I have come across.

GLOBAL CAMPAIGNS

Prudential “Bring Your Challenges” campaign

Prudential is an American financial services company, specializing in retirement solutions. If you are still on the fence about why you should start saving for retirement at the earliest, read this for 11 reasons why. We were working on a campaign for one of our products when my boss introduced me to this campaign. I think I will forever be grateful for her showing me this gem which is now firmly entrenched in my memory as one of the best campaigns ever!

Prudential got Dan Gilbert, a well-known psychologist on board and they designed some fantastic social experiments which end up with most viewers having a eureka moment! Very few communications are so insightful that they end up making people really think.

While the above ad shows the dominos variant, also check out magnets, action gap and ribbons in the same campaign. Trust me, it will make you want to start saving for retirement right now.

Mastercard Priceless Campaign

While the campaign literally endorses consumerism, it’s one of the first memories I have of a campaign I have truly loved. Even Mastercard knew they had something going, as it became a global campaign with multiple iterations lasting many years.

I think the campaign was really smartly packaged with a lot of small elements with their prices with a Mastercard swiping them up, leading up to the crux of an event which money can’t buy. While I have added just one of the classics which has an India trip integrated into it, there are tons of iterations available on Youtube.

Turk Ekonomi Bankasi International Womens’ Day campaign

I landed on this campaign through Ads of the World. What intrigued me about the ad was the way they showed the invisible scripts in most men’s heads about women running a business at almost any stage that she might have reached – be it at an idea level or even after she has achieved some level of success.

While I have never been told to bring my aspirations down because I am a girl or a woman, I believe I tend to unconsciously ignore those invisible scripts. However, a lot of women do hear those and it’s good to see a Turkish bank address it as it is and also have a special product – Kadin Bankaciligi (Women’s Banking Expense Package) which the translated page proclaims is a special package “created to help women bosses reduce their financial product and banking costs”. On paper, the product and the communication looked applause-worthy!

INDIAN AD CAMPAIGNS

The Indian campaigns that I have mentioned below all are a result of real marketing insight. While they will all be in Hindi, with the descriptions below you will understand them. They are some of the most brilliant memorable ads that I remember across years.

Franklin Templeton India Good EMI Campaign

Franklin Templeton India is a mutual fund company that used this route to promote Systematic Investment Plan or SIP where an investor puts in a fixed amount into equities every month. Most Indians have multiple loans running and at the start of the month, most of our salaries are eaten up by the EMIs or monthly installments for purchases made earlier. Franklin Templeton India termed SIP as the good EMI as it is helping you build your future. Check out the ad to see how impactful they were in translating that idea into an ad.

HDFC Standard Life Retirement Plans campaign

A lot of Indians depend financially on their children post-retirement. HDFC is a financial services giant in India and for their Retirement Plans they chose to go with the insight of urging people to invest and live with self-respect in the post-retirement years.

With this background, the ad is fairly simple to understand as apart from the background music or song, there is no dialogue. The song itself can be translated to – “My head hasn’t bowed in front of anyone, neither will it”.

ICICI Prudential Life campaign

In India, even today men are the dominating breadwinners. This much-acclaimed ad showed the small gestures that men make in their everyday lives to protect the ones they love ending with the tagline – “Those who take their responsibility serious don’t show it/make a big deal about it. And we protect those people”

ICICI is another big financial services player in the Indian market, with ICICI Prudential being their life insurance arm. Don’t miss out their logo where a hand comes across and makes the red line below the brand name. That red line is meant to connote vermillion or sindoor which in India is still widely used in the hair parting by women to show that they are married and that their husband is alive.

What’s your favorite personal finance ad that really made you smile or thoughtful or take an action? Let me know in the comments below.