When GSW Worldwide took over KeyBank's "achieve anything" campaign in 2001, it had a definite 1990s feel, says Kurt Richards, creative director at the agency. It had been pegged to "big lofty dreams" underscored by a '90s sentiment of wealth and outsized market gains, he says.
The agency's job was to retool the campaign to be "relevant in a real-world level," he says. "We just felt like 'That was then and this is now,'" he says of the original message. The revamped campaign kept the "achieve anything" tagline, but nothing else. It still speaks to the dreams of customers but in a different manner, he says. Specifically, the new campaign has ratcheted down the goals conveyed in the spots to be more aligned with the way real people think and live. "We decided that the aspirations did not have to be big. They could be small," Richards says, and still convey an importance that consumers would recognize. "It can be a college kid getting her first debit card, or someone opening their first checking account," he says. "Those things are no less relevant to them than a company buying a new division overseas."
Life is no longer illustrated with broad strokes, but rather with smaller steps. "It's no longer A to Z, it's more like point A to point B," he says.
The new campaign hit the air April 11 in Key's 12-state footprint, with spots on CNBC, and local TV news and radio during rush hours. Corresponding outdoor and print ads followed. Print ads will be running in The Wall Street Journal and other publications through December.
And this effective marketing campaign will strike a chord with potential customers, according to market analysts. "This is everything I'm looking for in a branding campaign," says Brenda Marlin, director of the American Bankers Association Marketing Network. Marlin says the notion of a bank trying to connect with customers' dreams is very effective branding, and one that she expects to see repeated.
Key has wisely separated its message from that of other mass media commercials, Marlin says. It doesn't just talk about how good the bank is, she says, but makes the connection to how it can help customers. "We see a lot of image campaigns that focus on the bank and not the customer," she says.
Indeed, Richards says that the underlying sentiment is that people and companies have places to go, things to do. And KeyBank, of course, is there to help. That led to a transportation theme, with consumers getting confused about how to get to various locations.
One spot shows a family with a young child boarding a bus and asking the driver: "Do you go to college degree?" Cut to a spokeswoman walking through an office, who says, "Reaching financial destinations takes more than aspiration. It takes preparation and the inspiration of knowing someone is on your side. KeyBank finds the best route to your goals."
It may not be prompting huge guffaws, says Richards, but the lightheartedness is an effective way to deliver the bank's message.
The campaign also has two spots geared toward corporate customers and they, too, show misguided attempts to use transportation to reach financial goals. And in these spots, the cliches just keep coming.
One shows a businessman hop into a cab and confidently say to the driver, "Take me to capital expansion, please and, oh, stay ahead of the curve." The last shot of the commercial shows an appropriately confused cabbie while the businessman is still on a roll: "Just follow Easy Street, my friend."
Even the spokesman cannot resist a cliche, saying, "You know, it's not that easy to get your company from here to there. KeyBank makes the ride smoother with the people, plans and products to help your company reach its destination."
Richards says he thinks the spots could prove to have staying power. In a year, the "achieve anything" ads may look very different, but they could still have the theme of Key helping customers through life's steps. "We hope it's something Key can make hay with," he says.
