Thanks for your comments on the new ad campaign

Added on 17/04/2008 14:10

I am pretty pleased you all have sent me your comments, thanks for taking the time and keep them coming. It is quite interesting in terms of the fact that the ad seems to have had a polarising effect on you. Some like, some dislike.

It was interesting to see the response to us doing a branding campaign; I hear you loud and clear that you felt the product benefits, like our AAA rating, security and interest rates were not as forthcoming as you would like, and I can totally understand that initial response. As the campaign unfolds, more product and benefits messages will become more obvious in the creative.

At this early stage of the campaign, the benefit of us doing this was to raise the awareness of the name RaboPlus, as our research showed many people had never heard of our brand, let alone our product!

I am hoping when my team and I are asked who we work for, we can say RaboPlus and the response is "oh, the online bank", as opposed to "who’s that then?"!

It was always going to cause a stir being so different with the creative interpretation and headline Affluents Anonymous. We did a lot of market research around the campaign idea and obviously it tested well otherwise we wouldn’t have made the ad.

But I want to keep hearing your opinions as the campaign unfolds as ultimately it’s what you think now that the campaign has launched. Just so you know, I do discuss all your feedback with the marketing team and we consistently consider all our customer feedback across marketing, customer service, our products and what we can learn and improve on across the whole business.

For those who had a problem viewing the ad files, I have asked our online team to check this out and ensure the links are working properly. Thanks for the heads up on that.

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1. Peter S'van (NSW NTH/ WEST)Quote | 22/04/2008 08:26

What a load of crap, I must say that the one ad I saw when I went into the city to see our accountant shocked me.

What happened to the BEST Agriculture Bank of Australia, do you at Rabobank not have any pride and know that their is a sever draught in Australia and especially in the state of NSW, and that real people with real money are struggling with not only feeding the family and animals, trying to keep the farming business going. Why doesnt Rabobank use that extra money on real things within the rural community, and not spend excessive money on crappy ads.

To use people showing off their wealth to gain business is shameless.

First the commenwealth bank and now Rabobank, I dont know which ones is worse.

Seriously $100 notes to clean and wipe themselves, obviously this common in your office for everyday use.

You should be ashamed of yourselves as the best rural bank

Peter S'van

North Western NSW

2. Alice (Melbourne)Quote | 24/04/2008 01:50

I wonder about the contrasts within your advertising. If we are meant to aspire to be in the in the Affluents Anonymous Group - which I am assuming we are. Why are they displayed as rather unattractive characters? I understand that they are a sterotype personified, but showing these unhappy and to be honest slightly ugly people on your public site banners is hardly a great call to action I would think?

3. EmQuote | 25/04/2008 11:00

I love the ad I think it is really hilarious, and I only have a very small amount in my account, but now I walk around thinking I am a member of "Affluents Anonymous". ROFL

I am sure you will have different more serious ads in the future though.

4. John Pieri (Queensland)Quote | 26/04/2008 11:14

Brian,
investing in the current climate is a SERIOUS business.I'd be pushing the AAA rating and some other info on Rabo -
(who most Australians have never heard of), rather than an amusing soap opera.
Who is your advertising agency?

5. Brandon (Perth)Quote | 24/04/2008 07:29

This has nothing to do with the ad, but I'd like to hear Bryan's thoughts about this issue. Today I received an email from RaboPlus telling me that the terms and conditions have been amended. I've received other emails like this one before (e.g. a rise in our on-call interest rate, thanks RaboPlus!) but surely this would open RaboPlus up to phishing? How am I supposed to know that the email is legit, because regular banks don't usually send out emails? I would suggest that every time RaboPlus has something to tell its customers we receive a quick note via email telling us to go to RaboPlus.com.au (no link, as this would open Rabo up to phishing again) and login to our accounts. In our account interface there could be a 'My Messages' panel, just like eBay does.

eBay does this and all communications can be verified by going into 'My Messages' in the My eBay section. eBay is just an online marketplace and they have better phishing protection than a bank that we trust a lot more of our money with. Surely there is something wrong with that?

I'd like to hear about what Bryan thinks about this. The DigiPass is secure, but one flaw in RaboPlus's security is the emails. Logging in to my account requires my DigiPass, so my solution combines the DigiPass with an online message centre.

6. Bryan Inch (sydney)Quote | 01/05/2008 12:18

John Pieri (Queensland) wrote:
Brian, investing in the current climate is a SERIOUS business.I'd be pushing the AAA rating and some other info on Rabo - (who most Australians have never heard of), rather than an amusing soap opera. Who is your advertising agency?

We do appreciate the seriousness of the current climate John. The ads are intended to be humorous in order to attract attention and cut through the cluttered advertising space.

7. charlie davies (moss vale nsw)Quote | 01/05/2008 01:13

I assume your advertising is City-centric and us country hicks don't have enough money to make it worth while advertising to. Maybe your column or website can refer us to a media schedule. In other matters, don't ham up or patronise us: a simple message of product benefits, security backing and deliverable service is all that we want from a bank.

8. Bryan Inch (Sydney)Quote | 07/05/2008 05:04

charlie davies (moss vale nsw) wrote:
I assume your advertising is City-centric and us country hicks don't have enough money to make it worth while advertising to. Maybe your column or website can refer us to a media schedule. In other matters, don't ham up or patronise us: a simple message of product benefits, security backing and deliverable service is all that we want from a bank.

Charlie, thanks for your comments. We definitely aren't excluding rural areas. You can see our TV Ads on Pay TV, our print ads in national press such as The Australian and Financial Review, and of course online.

9. Bryan Inch (Sydney)Quote | 08/05/2008 03:01

Brandon (Perth) wrote:
This has nothing to do with the ad, but I'd like to hear Bryan's thoughts about this issue. Today I received an email from RaboPlus telling me that the terms and conditions have been amended. I've received other emails like this one before (e.g. a rise in our on-call interest rate, thanks RaboPlus!) but surely this would open RaboPlus up to phishing? How am I supposed to know that the email is legit, because regular banks don't usually send out emails? I would suggest that every time RaboPlus has something to tell its customers we receive a quick note via email telling us to go to RaboPlus.com.au (no link, as this would open Rabo up to phishing again) and login to our accounts. In our account interface there could be a 'My Messages' panel, just like eBay does. eBay does this and all communications can be verified by going into 'My Messages' in the My eBay section. eBay is just an online marketplace and they have better phishing protection than a bank that we trust a lot more of our money with. Surely there is something wrong with that? I'd like to hear about what Bryan thinks about this. The DigiPass is secure, but one flaw in RaboPlus's security is the emails. Logging in to my account requires my DigiPass, so my solution combines the DigiPass with an online message centre.

Hi Brandon, thanks for your note. Being an online bank our customers want us to communicate with them online. We are working towards finding the right balance between posting a message in the secure site and sending information to personal email addresses.

We always like to send general information to your personal email, and opt to post messages to clients ‘My messages’ inbox in the secure site, if we are sending any personal or account information.

In line with our policy we avoid including hyperlinks in our emails to our secure site, however we don’t see any issues with linking to our public site as it carries a low phishing risk.

10. Bryan Inch (Sydney)Quote | 08/05/2008 03:04

Peter S'van (NSW NTH/ WEST) wrote:
What a load of crap, I must say that the one ad I saw when I went into the city to see our accountant shocked me. What happened to the BEST Agriculture Bank of Australia, do you at Rabobank not have any pride and know that their is a sever draught in Australia and especially in the state of NSW, and that real people with real money are struggling with not only feeding the family and animals, trying to keep the farming business going. Why doesnt Rabobank use that extra money on real things within the rural community, and not spend excessive money on crappy ads. To use people showing off their wealth to gain business is shameless. First the commenwealth bank and now Rabobank, I dont know which ones is worse. Seriously $100 notes to clean and wipe themselves, obviously this common in your office for everyday use. You should be ashamed of yourselves as the best rural bank Peter S'van North Western NSW

Hi Peter, our ads are all about promoting RaboPlus as opposed to Rabobank’s rural arm. We understand that the drought is of concern to many farmers across Australia, and our advertising didn’t set out to upset these people. Rather it’s about using a fictitious setting and fictitious characters to cut through a cluttered advertising environment and give RaboPlus a personality. Our investment products are very much designed to give people a better offer. For example our savings account pays a market leading interest rate and comes with no fees or minimum balance.

11. Brandon (Perth)Quote | 10/05/2008 04:42

Thanks Bryan for your response. When linking to your normal (i.e. the unsecure one) site there is a link to the secure site... this might be a concern if you do ever link to the site, however I understand that when you announce a change to the T&C there isn't really a need to click the link...

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

12. Mick Walker (Country NSW)Quote | 29/05/2008 08:19

Bryan Inch (Sydney) wrote:
Charlie, thanks for your comments. We definitely aren't excluding rural areas. You can see our TV Ads on Pay TV, our print ads in national press such as The Australian and Financial Review, and of course online.

Again Brian you show your lack of understanding for rural customers. We are in the midst of the worst drought some of us have ever seen do you think that we have spare change to suscribe to pay TV??????? And as most of us can only afford to splurge on one paper we buy a rural based one that is relevant to our industry the land not the fin review or the australian. Thanks again for your understanding its a wonder RABO have any customers left if this is the way they think of them.

13. Bryan Inch (Sydney)Quote | 06/06/2008 04:38

Mick Walker (Country NSW) wrote:
Again Brian you show your lack of understanding for rural customers. We are in the midst of the worst drought some of us have ever seen do you think that we have spare change to suscribe to pay TV??????? And as most of us can only afford to splurge on one paper we buy a rural based one that is relevant to our industry the land not the fin review or the australian. Thanks again for your understanding its a wonder RABO have any customers left if this is the way they think of them.

Mick,

As mentioned previously our ads are all about promoting RaboPlus as opposed to Rabobank’s rural arm. In my previous comment I was merely stating that RaboPlus advertising is still visible nationally through other mediums, particularly online.

The core business focus of our parent, Rabobank, is agriculture. Hence they communiate with rural customers and prospects through wide spread advertising in all the national rural newspapers and support and sponsorship of rural industry field days and events among other things.

On the other hand, RaboPlus, being an online retail bank has a much broader focus and so we communicate on a broader scale. Some of our advertising (i.e. TV and outdoor) does have a metropolitan skew simply because this is where the majority of Australia's population reside.