Scotiabank has launched a multimedia campaign to promote its Scene debit card.
The campaign by Bensimon Byrne and Astral Out-of-Home is the most aggressive in the five-year history of the Scene program, said Jeff Marshall, the bank’s vice-president of marketing, and includes national television, print and in-branch materials in addition to 80 near field communication-enabled transit shelters close to entertainment areas and movie theatres in downtown Toronto.
The Scene debit card is a partnership with Cineplex and allows customers to earn points they can use towards free movies.
The campaign’s sweet spot is the 18- to 34-year-old movie-going, tech-savvy audience, but Marshall said with non-traditional elements such as the smartphone app on outdoor advertising, as well as advertising on Microsoft X-Box, it tends to appeal to a broader audience aged between 14 and 44.
It’s the first time an advertising campaign has used Astral’s NFC technology to connect with a younger demographic, said Debbie Drutz, director, media markets and innovation at Astral.
When a customer approaches the transit shelter ad with their smartphone, they tap or scan the poster and are sent to a link that allows them to enter a Facebook competition for a chance to win two free movie passes to Cineplex Entertainment theatres, as well as directions to the nearest Scotiabank where they can then open an account with a Scene card.
“Scotiabank told us that they wanted to target young entertainment seekers who love music and entertainment so we matched that target group against our pedestrian traffic at street level and we also crossed that with the early adopter, smartphone user, tech-savvy target group with our GIS system,” said Drutz.
They had a 68% conversion rate when they ran a pilot program last March on five transit shelters, she said.
Marshall said the bank’s brand positioning of “You’re richer than you think” is all about demonstrating rich moments in people’s lives by communicating authentic situations.
“We wanted to show people what it feels like to be a Scotiabank Scene member and the insight is ‘What is the feeling of free?’” he said.
Scotiabank took over a Cineplex theatre for a night, hid cameras throughout the theatre and every customer was given a free pass, free popcorn and pop and told “Don’t worry, it’s free.”
“When they went into the movie theatre we had a comedian explain that this is the feeling of free brought to you by Scotiabank Scene program and we took all of that content and made a 30-second television spot,” he said.
Phd, Scotiabank’s media AOR, handled the buy.
