Responding to recent competitive changes in the Canadian banking scene, Canada Trust has introduced a new positioning statement and, for the first time in its history, rolled out a corporate image campaign.
Between Sept. 13 and Dec. 6, the London, Ont.-based trust company will run advertising on national tv and on outdoor billboards in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
The campaign, created by Toronto’s Doner Schur Peppler Advertising, which became Canada Trust’s first agency-of-record when it was hired last fall, features the newly coined positioning line, ‘Thinking like a customer.’
Creative
Creatively, each of the three 30-second tv spots highlights a specific financial product, such as 24-hour tele-banking, while also depicting Canada Trust as a company that looks out for its customers.
Ed Clark, Canada Trust’s vice-chairman and chief executive officer-designate, says Ottawa’s deregulation of the financial sector last fall cleared the way for Canada’s registered banks to move into the wealth management services sector, an area previously served almost exclusively by the country’s trust companies.
Clark notes that by merging their existing personal banking divisions with newly formed or acquired wealth management divisions (several of the banks have bought trusts in the last year), the banks are poised to become formidable players in an evolving sector that combines personal banking and wealth management.
Reinforce positioning
Alan Wolfson, Canada Trust’s senior vice-president of marketing, says Canada Trust has always been a leader in introducing innovative products and services, adding the new campaign is intended to reinforce that positioning in ‘an increasingly competitive market.’
Canada Trust was the first financial institution to offer daily interest chequing accounts.
It also led the way in offering extended banking hours a decade ago with the introduction of branches open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
As part of its new image, Canada Trust has also modified its logo and dropped the name Johnny Cash from its automated teller machines. PA
