Scottish Widows Bank to make TV debut

Scottish Widows Bank is to launch its first ever TV advertising campaign on May 7.

The campaign will showcase the Bank’s Instant Transfer Savings Account. This follows on from the decision made by Scottish Widows in January to feature products in their TV advertising for the first time in 20 years.

Richard Clark, head of product development and marketing at Scottish Widows Bank, said: “Scottish Widows Bank has gone from strength to strength in the 12 years it has been operating. We have grown from an original team of 18 people to a thriving business of nearly 400, delivering year-on-year growth during that time.

“Our marketing strategy is central to our growth strategy, and our first venture into TV advertising underlines our ambitions.”

The first Scottish Widows campaign to feature the ‘Widow’ as a living logo appeared in 1986, and was a radical departure in financial services advertising at the time. The first product-focused adverts appeared in January of this year and the new campaign for Scottish Widows Bank marks another significant development in the evolution of the brand marketing strategy.

Mike Hoban, customer & brand marketing director at Scottish Widows, comments: “Scottish Widows Bank has consistently performed well and, as a key component to our continuing success, we are extending our marketing for the bank to TV for the first time.”

“The Scottish Widows brand represents strength, trust and integrity, all of which can be directly applied to Scottish Widows Bank. This campaign marks a progression in the marketing strategy for the Scottish Widows Group.”

The ads will be based on the same creative treatment seen in the recent Scottish Widows group campaign, and will feature the iconic cloaked Widow, played by Hayley Hunt.

The TV advertising campaign breaks on 7 May 2007 and will run for four weeks. Media buying was handled by Zed Media.