Who: EQ Bank, with The Hive for strategy and creative; Asymetric and Partizan for production (Ally Pankiw directing); Outsider Editorial, Alter Ego for post; OSO Audio for music; Epitaph for media.
What: "Second Chance," a new campaign that is the latest chapter in the financial institution's one-year-old "Make Bank" platform. It stars the father-and-son acting duo of Dan and Eugene Levy, marking the first time the bank has used celebrities in its advertising.
What: "Second Chance," a new campaign that is the latest chapter in the financial institution's one-year-old "Make Bank" platform. It stars the father-and-son acting duo of Dan and Eugene Levy, marking the first time the bank has used celebrities in its advertising.
When & Where: The campaign launched this week with a variety of video assets, including a 30-second hero spot that is being supported by a series of 15-second spots. The ads are running across TV and online video, complemented by out-of-home, social, programmatic and digital display.
Why: Introduced in 2022, the "Make Bank" platform is intended to portray EQ as a "driver of change" in financial services, presenting it as a more palatable alternative to the big banks thanks to its high-interest, no-free accounts.
According to EQ Bank's recent fiscal results, it has enjoyed "tremendous success" with the "Make Bank" platform, including growing its customer base by more than 30% in fiscal 2023. It now has more than 400,000 customers, with deposits totalling $8.2 billion.
"Every campaign that we do is about really putting this tension in the foreground, so that people can feel why they should be looking for an alternative to the big five," said The Hive's chief strategy officer, Dustin Rideout. "Canadians know that they pay higher bank fees, but they just need it to be shown in context so that they say 'That's messed up. Why am I doing this?'"
How: The creative approach was born out of the insight that many Canadians still use their first-ever bank account—which is often opened for them by their parents. According to a 2021 survey by Ratehub.ca, 70% of Canadians have held the same bank account for 11 years or more, and 80% have never switched bank accounts.
"Most parents signed their little ones up for a bank account so they could learn about money and saving from an early age,” said Eugene Levy in a release. “The idea of highlighting the unintended result of that decision—high bank fees and not much interest—and exploring parents’ epiphany moment was the hook that Daniel and I found funny."
The 30-second hero spot opens on Dan Levy entering the kitchen of his home and encountering his father, who's let himself in using a key that Dan provided for emergencies. Levy junior says he's still using the account his father signed him up for as a child, with his father explaining the fees and lack of interest has cost him thousands of dollars over the years. "I want to fix this," says Eugene, before introducing his son to EQ Bank.
The other spots in the campaign feature the two men discussing various EQ Bank benefits, like free ATM withdrawals and no fees/high interest. "Every parent-child relationship has had their fair share of finance talks,” said Dan Levy. “Getting the chance to satirize those conversations with my dad was a lot of fun—and a little cathartic, too."
How'd they land the Levys? While both Eugene and Dan have starred in multiple commercials over the years, it's the first time they have appeared together in an ad campaign.
While The Hive's creative team of Ryan Speziale and Mike Albrecht, along with copywriter Liz Allemang, started developing the campaign and scripts with the Levys in mind, it wasn't originally intended to be a celebrity campaign.
"It wasn't like 'Let's go out and get a celebrity and we want the Levys because they're Canadian,'" said Rideout. "We had a concept we thought was quite brilliant, and we thought 'How can we plus this up because it's so special?'" It was important to have the right concept and idea before enlisting the celebrity talent, he explained.
"We started working through what the campaign was going to look like and—credit to the client—they said 'Well, let's go after the Levys,'" said Rideout.
A step change for EQ: The use of celebrities represents a significant evolution for EQ Bank in its marketing, said Rideout.
"When we launched 'Make Bank' we knew had a really smart idea that could cut through, but we didn't anticipate it would be as successful as early as it's been," he said. "They challenged us by saying 'How do we really take it up a notch? How do we have disruptive growth with our marketing and advertising?'"
And we quote: "Many Canadians accept bank fees and no interest for most of their lives simply because it’s what they’re used to—but it doesn’t have to be that way. We were excited at the opportunity to show Canadians what they could be making, without the take, with a fresh approach." — Mahima Poddar, SVP and group head, personal banking, EQ Bank,
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