RBC launched its first app this week and will be following it up with an ad campaign that focuses on online and mobile in a way the FI never has before.

The campaign, which starts in mid-January and runs for 10 weeks, will centre on the idea ‘bank outside the bank.’ To promote the app, RBC is running mobile banners on a variety of apps, including the Weather Network, CBC, TSN and others. Online, the company is trying to hit all the major players, such as Google.ca, Yahoo! Canada and Canwest’s sites, with homepage takeovers, banners and SEM. Ads will also run on Chinese and South Asian language online publications.

In print, the campaign will launch with high-impact ads and be sustained with smaller ads in daily newspapers in all the major markets.

RBC will also be focusing on getting its ads in front of people during idle time, like when they’re commuting, says Tracy Hackett, VP, marketing, RBC. Transit ads, on shelters and in vehicles, and billboards will be a big part of the campaign in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal in an effort to show that, with the app, idle time can be used to get banking done, she explains.

‘We have nothing on TV,’ Hackett says. ‘Because of the uniqueness of this capability, we wanted to reach customers when they’re at their busiest because this is a solution for them. The print, the online, the mobile; we wanted to speak to customers when they’d be most likely to need our new app.’

M2Universal in Toronto handled the media buy and BBDO, also in Toronto, did the creative.

‘The goal of the campaign is to do two things,’ Hackett says. ‘One is to introduce RBC’s mobile app but the other is to send strong messages about its tremendous capabilities.’