Looking for a celeb in finance

Since the TV era was born, celebrities have played an integral part in building brand awareness and loyalty.

Over the years, the financial services sector has also learnt to take advantage of celebrity stardust. Not only can a sprinkling of celebrity help build familiarity and trust, it can also help with cut-through in a noisy media landscape where media consumption habits evolve at speed.

While some have relied heavily on the ‘national treasure status’ of celebrities, others have been the vehicle to put a celebrity right at the heart of British culture.

Over the last thirty years, these campaigns have typically fallen into four different groups:

Campaign cut through

1. Big Zuu / Timmy Mallet / GC – ABI/ PLSA ‘Pension Attention’
2. Myleeen Klass – Bupa Mental Health
3. Dame Judi Dench – MoneySuperMarket

Familiarity through wit

1. Ant & Dec – Santander
2. Rowan Atkinson – Barclaycard
3. John Cleese – Avalon

Reassurance & expertise

1. George Clarke, Scarlette Douglas & Jason Fox – AXA UK
2. Michael Parkinson – Sun Life
3. Carol Vorderman – First Plus

Building a national treasure

1. Sergei & the meerkat family – Compare the Market
2. Churchill (the dog) – Churchill Insurance
3. Workie the pension monster – Department of Work & Pensions, Workplace Pension campaign

With financial services providers especially reliant on establishing and growing long term relationships with customers, the transformative potential of these partnerships for a brand is significant.

But as culture continues to fragment, those brands looking for a ‘one size fits all’ celebrity may well struggle. While larger than life campaigns will still help build brand fame, it is those that are more tactical and bespoke to demographics that will likely bear the most fruit.

Read our report, ‘NoticeMe! Why financial services need fame’, to read our view on why financial services need to unashamedly chase fame; our definition of what we mean by fame; a host of noteworthy examples from within and outside the sector; and how to create it with behavioural science tips aka CHESS.