FNB today announced the launch of its latest marketing campaign, ‘Un-Steve Yourself’. The campaign which is an evolution of the previous Steve campaign is intended to spark consumers’ re-evaluation of their choice of bank, and highlights FNB’s distinctive value proposition across its various businesses.
The latest FNB advertising campaign is founded on the brand equity gained from the previous campaign in the form of the character as well as the term ‘Beep Bank’. In 2011, FNB introduced consumers to ‘Steve’, an endearing and well-meaning, but sometimes naïve call centre agent working for Beep bank, who unsuccessfully attempted to switch FNB customers.
What is different this time is that Steve has evolved from being a character to representing the attitudes and behaviours displayed by people who believe that all banks are the same and are apathetic towards banks.
“We have always been aware of the value that the Steve character alongside ‘Beep Bank’ as distinctive assets in our advertising arsenal, with high familiarity, recognition and recall associated with the brand,” says Bernice Samuels FNB Chief Marketing Officer. “Steve became known as something of an anti-hero; and whether people loved to love him or loved to hate him, consumers all over South Africa definitely got to know and remember him”.
The latest concept, expounds consumers to ‘un-Steve’ themselves by switching to FNB, as well as encouraging existing FNB customers to make sure they are experiencing the full benefit of FNB’s value proposition.
“We all have ‘Steve’ moments in our lives; those times when we think or act from a place of naivety, apathy, fear, or even ignorance. People are inclined more toward satisfactory decisions that make do, instead of the ‘best’ decisions due to lack of information and the effort it requires doing this for every purchase decision”.
This campaign prompts individuals and businesses to pause and reflect on the true value they may be missing out on by not optimising on the value they could receive from their banks.
While the ‘un-Steve’ campaign takes a light-hearted and often humorous approach, the message it delivers is hard-hitting and designed to make South African banking customers take a serious look at whether they are truly getting the banking experience they deserve, concludes Samuels.
