RBC is the latest brand to tap into the power of the crowd with two new ads that stitch together home videos shot by its customers.
Created by BBDO Toronto, the ads focus on the concept of “Someday,” which RBC has had at the forefront of its communications since last winter. The first ad is all about family moments – taking a baby home from the hospital, learning to ride a bike and graduation. The second is all about travel, with shots of people zip-lining, whale watching and walking through the desert. Both end with the tagline, “Let’s make your someday happen.”
The impetus behind the campaign, according to RBC vice president of marketing Alan Depencier, was to better understand its customers needs and goals; what they’d like to make happen “someday.”
“Everybody has a someday, whether it’s big or small,” Depencier said. “We’re here to help them achieve that.”
For a month this summer, RBC asked customers to send in videos that showed their own “someday,” advertising the initiative on social media, email blasts and the sign-in page for its online banking service. The brand also offered $1,000 a day for the best video and gave away a grand prize of $20,000.
In total, the bank received over 15,000 videos.
“Real clients and Canadians telling us about their someday and the language they used was so inspiring to everyone at RBC. We felt getting people to tell their real stories was something very interesting,” Depencier said, “They’re so emotionally engaging. We could never think and come up with TV ads that would be as powerful as actually using real client stories.”
Depencier said test groups also found the spots powerful, reporting that they saw the brand as more relatable and authentic than if it had used paid actors. For RBC, Depencier said that was a chief concern, as banks are constantly battling the perception that they’re faceless entities only concerned with their main trade – money.
The ads are currently in-market with media handled by M2 Universal on a selection of mass properties, including Gotham, Arrow, Big Bang Theory, Ellen, Marvel’s Agents of Shield and The Social.
The campaign is supported by pre-roll on YouTube, a display campaign and paid media on Facebook and Twitter.
