Citibank Ads Take A Risk To Go For Laughs

Written by Cassandra S. Hess    Saturday, 12 March 2011

Financial giant Citigroup wants more consumer business. The consumer is "an enormous focus for us," CEO Charles Prince said during a fourth-quarter earnings call Friday. Citigroup's consumer unit, which includes banking, credit cards and lending, has struggled in the past but now is growing. Fourth-quarter revenue grew 14% to $7.96 billion, while net income rose 48% to $2.09 billion. Among ways it is courting consumers: *New financial products, such as its online Citibank e-Savings. *More branches. *Expansion into new markets, such as Philadelphia and Boston. *More one-stop shopping, such as putting Smith Barney brokers in some Citibank branches. *Spending big on consumer marketing to get its brand message out. From Jan. 1 through Sept. 30 last year, Citigroup spent $314 million on advertising, with $270 million of that promoting its Citibank brand and products, according to TNS Media Intelligence. *Perhaps having a single brand for Citigroup and all its services. On the call, Prince wouldn't comment on a report in The New York Times that Citigroup will brand itself and all units as simply "Citi." But he did say, "If we had a common brand, we would get some benefit on the cost side. ... We spend a lot of money on advertising." One benefit Citigroup is emphasizing in its consumer advertising is its extensive loyalty programs. Consumers who use its credit cards and also products such as direct deposit, online bill paying or a CitiMortgage loan earn points toward items such as airline tickets, gift cards or electronics. Recent commercials making that point feature two quirky characters: Roman, a man with a heavy Eastern European accent, and his sidekick, Victor. The ads were designed to have "unique humor and charm," according to a press release from Citibank ad agency Fallon. However, consumers polled for USA TODAY's weekly Ad Track survey didn't find the ads very rewarding. More than half said they disliked the ads vs. the Ad Track average of 13%. Just 7% said they like the ads "a lot," vs. the average of 20%. "When you're selling financial services, humor is kind of a minefield," says Ernie Schenck, author of The Houdini Solution, a book about creativity. "You never know what's going to work and what isn't." While the offbeat actions of an oddball foreigner worked in the movie Borat, they didn't translate to the TV screen in this case. "It's just not resonating," Schenck says. (Citigroup spokesman Mark Rodgers said there was no tie between the ads and the movie. "The ads were developed before the movie came out," he said.) The ads began airing in October and were to run through March, according to the Fallon press release. But they stopped running by the start of this month. It was "always intended to be primarily a fourth-quarter campaign during heavy shopping season to demonstrate the ease of accumulating rewards points," Rodgers said in an e-mailed statement. Citigroup is now rerunning previous ads about the rewards program. One, for example, shows a woman jogging as a man drives behind her with his car stereo blasting. The message: She could have gotten an iPod with rewards. That campaign also scored below average in Ad Track in 2005. Just 10% of respondents liked those ads a lot, vs. the Ad Track average then of 21%. And 20% disliked the ads vs. the average then of 13%.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 12 March 2011 )