Who: Scotiabank, with Rethink for strategy and creative; Radke for production; Nimiopere, Trafik, and The Vanity for post production; Vapor Music for audio; and PHD for media.
What: “You’re Richer Than You Think,” a new spot reimagining the long-standing tagline for a modern audience to help give Canadians a more hopeful perspective on their financial potential.
What: “You’re Richer Than You Think,” a new spot reimagining the long-standing tagline for a modern audience to help give Canadians a more hopeful perspective on their financial potential.
When & Where: The 360-degree campaign went live on Jan. 1, anchored by the hero :60 second film which will be seen in cinemas across Canada, and supported by a 30-second and a series of 15-second spots running across traditional television, OLV, and connected TV throughout 2024.
Why: The “You’re Richer Than You Think” tagline debuted in 2006, and though it was often open for interpretation, the intended message was that Scotiabank could help customers retain more of their money, Scotiabank’s director of global brand management, Katie O’Donovan told The Message. Going into 2024, Scotiabank’s research shows that Canadians are worried about their finances and are less receptive to hearing or believing this, which is why the bank asked Rethink to help it conceptualize the tagline with more empathy.
“In the current economic climate, the future definitely feels daunting to some, and that's why we've evolved our ‘Richer Than You Think’ platform to more accurately reflect the behaviour that we're seeing across Canada and to show how Scotiabank can really be there for our clients,” said O’Donovan.
How (the strategy): O’Donovan said Scotiabank asked Rethink if the existing tagline should be repurposed, or left behind entirely. The word “richness” was of particular concern, since it can be perceived as a stark comparison to many customers' financial reality. O’Donovan said that this led to more rigorous testing for this campaign.
“We were handed this distinctive brand asset with the opportunity [to ask tough questions]: Do we keep it? Is it weird during this climate? How do we marry this idea that’s been around since 2006 with how people are feeling today? We were either going to throw it away, or evolve it,” said Rethink’s group strategy director, Crystal Sales.
After scrutinizing the nearly two-decade old tagline in collaboration with Scotiabank’s research team, they concluded that it continues to perform well. The decision was made to keep it, but reframe it.
While "richness" in 2006 tended to be interpreted as the balance of someone's bank account, today's definition tends to be reflected through a combination of lifestyle and high-end purchases.
“In this time, everything feels like 'keeping up with the Joneses,'" said Sales. To give Scotiabank clients a break from this perspective of comparing oneself to displays of wealth, Rethink repurposed the term "richness" to mean the richness that you find in your life and the things you already have.
How (the creative): The spot sets out to empathetically reflect the realities that Canadians face with a relatable insight: that even while experiencing gratitude for what we have, we are often reminded that someone else has more.
The film opens with a man waiting for his dinner guest in a cozy restaurant while reviewing his dining budget on his phone. He has $138 allocated for the rest of the month, which will easily be the cost of dinner for two.
It’s at that moment that he looks around and catches sight of two women dining at a higher end restaurant across the street. The POV passes to one of the women, and continues to transition from person to person, always reflecting someone who seems to be enjoying a wealthier life.
The scenes continue to escalate until a celebrity exits a helicopter and jumps into a car to escape the paparazzi. As she’s driving, she passes and takes a long look at the original man, now seated and holding hands with his dinner guest as the camera zooms out to capture the joy of their small moment. As he pays with his Scotiabank card, a narrator says “you’re richer than you think.”
Director Ian Schwartz and director of photography Pat Scola used a consistent zoom throughout the film to create a feeling of being on the outside and always trying to catch up. Even though there was a clear elevation from scene to scene, the spaces were designed to make each of them feel ‘rich in their own way.’ The multiple characters also gave Scotiabank the opportunity to reflect their diverse client base, through backgrounds, income brackets and lifestyles.
“At Rethink, we have a goal for this account where we don't want the effect to be ‘that's good for a bank,’ we want it to be a brilliant ad," said Sales. "We want to transcend the category itself. And to do so we had to really tap into the empathy, and the cinematic way in which the characters are portrayed and that the bank is portrayed."
And we quote: “We're celebrating small wins, and we're reframing those moments of richness, so our role at Scotiabank is to help our customers find more of those opportunities through our advice, products and tools and we really hope that that comes through in this new campaign."– Katie O'Donovan, director of global brand management, Scotiabank
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