Best Financial Services Integrated Ad Campaign

In the heated political climate of an upcoming election year, ING DIRECT used the notion of paying fees versus not paying fees as the basis for a current events-driven campaign. The premise behind our “Fee Party vs. Free Party” campaign for our Electric Orange checking is a product-based take on a political campaign. As the exemplar of the “Free Party,” Electric Orange challenges and exposes the absurdity of the fee-based philosophy of the major banks. We launched the campaign on Election Day (right on the heels of Bank Transfer Day), capitalizing on the political momentum and cultural chatter. We blanketed the message in urban markets such as Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia, choosing locations that symbolized freedom – places like the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Faneuil Hall and the Tea Party Ship. We also reached out to consumers on their daily commute with subway station dominations, bus kings and bus shelter posters. All out–of-home executions were at least twofold, with some units having five unique creative executions to build the party message and engage consumers: the first unit would deliver the absurd and shocking fee party message, which was followed by the Free Party message touting ING DIRECT’s free checking account and driving them to elect free checking at ingdirect.com. “Fee Party vs. Fee Party” generated 42,000 new checking accounts in one month, which is 50% more than ING DIRECT’s projection.

Contributors:

ING DIRECT

Location: USA