Client: National Bank of Canada

Campaign: Banque Nationale — Campagne REER

Agency: LG2

Creative Director: Gilles Chouinard

Copywriters: Isabelle Cardinal, Caroline Barrette

Art Director: Martin Cinq-Mars

Each winter, usually in February, consumers everywhere get bombarded by ads from financial institutions – an endless stream of communications and promotions all offering virtually the same REER (RRSP) products. So how do you differentiate? ‘Simplicity’ was the strategy for Banque Nationale.

Drawing on its sense of ‘solidity and credibility,’ as well as its local Quebec heritage, the bank and its agency LG2 set about ‘simplifying life’ and showing just how easy it can be to have financial needs – particularly REER needs – met quickly and simply.

The integrated effort, which ran solely in Quebec from December 1999 to February 2000, identified and targeted existing clients with a household income of more than $50,000 – those with REERs and those without.

In a bid to ‘dominate the market and the media,’ Banque Nationale used primarily radio (employing a heavy rotation at peak periods throughout the day) and print. Print creative showed the simple image or silhouette of a person, while the accompanying copy zeroed in on the specific benefits of different products (AcceleREER, OrchestREER, GeneREER). Coloured banners were wrapped around newspapers La Presse and Le Soleil, and traditional inserts followed in several other publications.

Over 100,000 bank clients also received direct mail with offers geared to their particular profiles. Advertising based on key Internet search words was part of the online portion, and a CD-ROM was placed in finance magazine Les Affaires Plus. The effort easily surpassed the objective of achieving 40% more REER placements than the previous year.