Compliant creativity

In financial services, a great advert isn't alway a good advert.

This is an extract from IMTW № 92 .

Read on to learn why:

① Creativity without compliance will be in vain.

② The sooner Compliance is involved, the more collaborative the process can be.

③ UK retail investors have little interest in stocks - unlike their US counterparts.

④ The UK is preparing financial market processes for digital assets.

⑤ Alignment between marketing and sales is critical yet often overlooked.

⑥ The urgency for bold and transformative leadership is greater than ever.

⑦ Doing your best work is more powerful than strategy in creating opportunity.

What's new

The Advertising Standards Authority banned Nationwide’s latest ad this week. CityAM reports:

In short:

• “Adverts for Nationwide starring actor Dominic West have been banned by the advertising regulator in their current form for misleading consumers that the lender would not close branches like its rivals. The Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation into the television, radio and press ads after hearing from 281 complainants, including rival high street lender Santander.”
• “In the TV ad that aired last October and November, West plays the role of a fictional bank boss at ‘A.N.Y. BANK’, mocking customers, expensing a lavish company lunch and planning a branch closure.”
• “After seeing a Nationwide building across the street and a colleague noting that it was not closing its branch, West’s character says: ‘We’re not Nationwide, are we? We’re nothing like them.’ The advert ends with a voiceover saying: ‘Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches,’ while on-screen text reads: ‘Publicly shared branch closures at Lloyds, Bank of Scotland/Halifax, Natwest, Barclays, Santander and HSBC’.”

Why it matters

This matters because it’s a such a shame. It’s so rare in financial services that anyone makes an advert that’s edgy, clever, and entertaining. The Nationwide campaign is all of that. But sadly making a great ad isn’t enough. You also have to make one that won’t fall foul of the many rules finance firms are bound by.

This is a challenge any financial marketer knows all too well: it’s hard to flex those creative muscles with your Compliance team looking on. But look on they should because a mistake doesn’t just mean your campaign could be banned, it could also lead to fines, legal action, and penalties so severe they jeopardise your business.

① In a regulated sector, creativity can’t exist in a vacuum. This ad is creative, it’s funny, it’s courageous, it’s great. But that one big promise that went unchecked (“unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches”), means all the creativity was in vain.

What to do about it

Take action

② Seasoned financial marketers all know this: it pays to involve Compliance early. Whether you’re devising a social media strategy, rethinking your marketing collateral, or writing an ad campaign, the sooner your colleagues from Compliance are involved, the more collaborative the process can be. Leave it too late and you risk a simple ‘no’.

With Compliance by your side, by all means start thinking creatively, but remember:

1. Humour: Client communications absolutely should be more accessible and more human. It's right to make them more conversational to connect better with your audiences. And using humour is a great way to do that.
2. Substantiation: No empty promises, no claims you can’t prove. Be precise with your language, there’s a huge difference between saying a product “will” do something and saying it “can” do something.
3. Disclaimers: Yes, they’re dull, no nobody ever reads them, but they’re there for a reason.

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For the rest of this issue, including points ③, ④, ⑤, ⑥ and ⑦, visit my Substack >

About

Written for senior leadership teams in finance and technology,?InMarketing This Week?is a showcase for news likely to impact you - delivered with insight on why it matters and ideas on what to do about it. It’s published every Sunday to give you a head start on the week. Read extracts?here, or subscribe to?have each full issue delivered straight to your inbox at six, before it's available anywhere else.