Nationwide appoints VCCP to ad roster
Nationwide has appointed VCCP as its advertising agency as it looks to keep the momentum going behind the revamped brand building strategy it launched last year.
The creative agency is tasked with sharpening the advertising for the financial firm’s bid to prove to potential customers how people-focused it is. Nationwide’s customer service and support for local communities are now at the heart of the brand after it was revamped last year with a £10m advertising campaign - the building society’s biggest media outlay to date.
18 Feet and Rising were responsible for creating the campaign following its appointment to the £20m account in 2011. While the agency is no longer the lead on the account it will continue to work on the roster.
The decision has been made faster than usual for such a big account with chemistry meetings taking place only last month. Nationwide undertook the process without the presence of a permanent marketing director with interim boss Stephen Leonard handling VCCP's appointment.
The announcement chimes with Nationwide’s earlier hints of changes to its advertising. Nationwide has spoken in the past about the need to trumpet its brand differentiators while also address the apathy many 11-to-17-year olds have toward banking.
A video service for mortgage customers arrived in-stores last month, pushing the financial firm’s attempt to use its stores to offer customers complex advice instead of just traditional financial services. Digital media, particularly the use of vloggers, has also played a key role in Nationwide’s marketing activity in 2015, acting on claims from last year that it would do more to attract younger customers.
Despite becoming the UK’s fifth largest lender in the fallout from the financial crisis, Nationwide has previously lamented the low unprompted awareness for the brand. It is likely that upcoming advertising will try to rectify this and bring the measure more inline with the prompted brand consideration the brand has accumulated.