Interac‘s holiday campaign to get shoppers to pay with debit is on again, and Holiday Bill — the annoying credit card bill that follows you around all winter — is back with a vengeance.
Two new spots from Zulu Alpha Kilo show Bill tagging along at the grocery store and demanding a piggyback at the gym.
“After last year we all had a little bit of heart for him,” said the Toronto agency’s ECD Ron Smrczek.
He said the team received good creative reviews on last year’s campaign, and that Interac’s sales reports showed a noticeable boost in debit card transactions over the 2013 holidays. “It felt like a bit of a no-brainer to bring him back.”
The same actor and costume were used as in last year’s Holiday Bill ads, which was ZAK’s first work for Interac upon winning the account. Smrczek said while last year’s ads had Bill showing up in and around the home, this year they tried to have him “showing up in unexpected places” wherever shoppers went.
The creators tried to tread the fine line between amusing and aggravating — they wanted Bill “not to be a jerk, but still an annoyance,” Smrczek said.
Bill will not appear in print and outdoor creative running simultaneously, which will be more straightforwardly focused on Interac’s new “Be in the Black” brand platform, created by ZAK and launched in March. The ads feature holiday-themed wordplay encouraging consumers to avoid fees and personal debt.
As with last year, Media Experts handled media for the campaign, and Tank handled the Quebec rollout.
