CommBank celebrates customers in new brand refresh campaign via M&C Saatchi Sydney and Re
This week sees the launch of a nationwide campaign for Commonwealth Bank, evolving the bank’s visual identity and creative platform in Australia via M&C Saatchi and Re Agency.
The new creative platform, ‘Can Lives Here’ is a reminder to Australians that our unique country is perfectly positioned to unlock opportunities, plans and dreams – no matter how big or small, and it celebrates the Australian capacity to not only thrive, but to stay optimistic even when optimism is under threat. This ‘Can do’ spirit is exemplified not by actors, but by real Australians from all walks of life and from every corner of the country. Alongside a complete brand refresh, the campaign reflects the bank’s evolution after a tumultuous year for the country.
Says Cam Blackley, chief creative officer, M&C Saatchi: “In the early parts of creative development, we spoke directly with customers and front-line staff and we heard over and over again about that shared resilience, the “can do” attitude and positivity that Aussies have always shown. The ability and willingness to get on with it no matter what life throws at you. We wanted to create a campaign that celebrates and showcases the achievements and attributes of these people, on television, in print, on outdoor sites and social media. Each are real stories of Can about real customers showing that Can really does live here.”
The refresh includes the first change to the iconic Commonwealth Bank corporate identity in almost 30 years.
Says Andy Thomas, executive creative director of M&C Saatchi’s design business Re Agency: “CommBank’s diamond is an iconic and significant asset, and the single asset that is most recalled by its customers. We wanted to ensure that the new visual identity was rooted in the brand’s strong heritage but also serves as a beacon of positivity and measured optimism of a brighter tomorrow.”
Says Monique Macleod, CMO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia: “CommBank’s transformation as a bank acknowledges that we needed to take meaningful action to deliver change that put the needs of our customers front and centre. Our brand is a symbol of who we are, what we stand for, and the experience our customers and communities can expect from us. With the work we are doing to reinvent the organisation around a new strategy and values, now is the right time to refresh the iconic diamond, making it lighter, brighter and more dynamic, and inject new meaning into the Can platform. A symbol of optimism fit for the future and one that represents the work we’ve done to be better, the work we still have to do, and the brighter future we are committed to helping Australia achieve.”
The full brand refresh campaign launched with teaser OOH executions and then a full rollout yesterday, Sunday 11 October, consisting of a 60,30 and 15 second” film OOH, press in all major publications, as well as across social platforms.
CommBank
Monique Macleod – Chief Marketing Officer
Di Everett – General Manager, Brand and Social
Tamisine Heath – Executive Manager, Brand and Social
Caroline Millar – Senior Marketing Manager
Katreena Tysen – Executive Manager, Brand Strategy
Zoe Bruce – Senior Manager, Brand Strategy
M&C Saatchi Sydney
Chief Creative Officer – Cam Blackley
Executive Creative Director – Mandie van der Merwe
Executive Creative Director – Avish Gordhan
Group Creative Director – Andy Flemming
Senior Art Director – Rosita Rawnsley-Mason
Senior Copywriter – Allie Steel
Art Director – Nicole Yeoman
Copywriter – Avi Azouz
Art Director – Jackson Elliot
Senior Strategy Director – Bronwyn Galvin
Social Strategy Director – Emma Parsons
Managing Partner – Amanda Quested
Group Account Director – Kyle Abshoff
Senior Account Director – Tori Davis
Senior Account Manager – Portia Sunde
Production Director – Rachel Strobridge
Head of Broadcast – Loren August
Senior TV Producer – Christina Wilmot
Associate Executive Producer – Henry Welch
Director of Communications, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment – Krystyna Frassetto
Production Company: Collider
Director Rob Stanton-Cook
Producer Renae Begent
Managing Director Rachael Ford-Davies
Post Production Company: Fin Design + Effects
Editor: Adam Wills
Music and Sound Design: Song Zu
Sonic Branding and Brand Voice Casting: Resonance
Visual Identity via Re Agency
Andy Thomas – ECD
Shannon Bell – Creative Director
Dan Flynn – Creative Director
Nicole Bon de Veire – Designer Director
Caroline Gilroy – Designer Director
Toby MGrath – Design Director
Jane Duru – Copy Director
Sumita Maharaj – Senior Designer
Sionen Adijains – Senior Designer
Mark Williams – Senior Finished Artist
Michelle Mondel – Designer
Judy McLaughlan – Senor Guidelines Designer
Jacqui Holloran – Senior Designer
Harry Tuckwell- Designer
Sarah Burling – Client Services Director
Annabelle Barnum – Group Account Director
Brigitte Harbrow – Account Director
39 Comments
Cam Lives Here.
Nice logo tweak.
How much did you “Bill”?
Sincerely, your banking overlords.
17 people needed for a logo and ID redesign
Montage Live here
lost in the sea of montage ads.
Nice ad. The gap is too big between ‘C’ and ‘an’.
This feels so forced and out of touch. The bank bullshit continues…
When did M&C become the most vanilla agency in town. This is average at best.
The client team and the agency’s were having a girls’ night out and all gleefully agreed that a bringing more summery yellow would be good for the brand. And then Creative suggested that the ad include subtle uses of yellow throughout (the montage of meaningless), to which the client team all agreed, but with the proviso “but not too subtle”. The end.
I like it better than the Coles montage. But now I have the montage song from Team America stuck in my head.
This is like every other unoriginal and boring TVC.
1. Narrator, saying things that are meant to be deep but come across as kinda lame and patronising.
2. Footage of everyday aussies, the city, outback, and multicultural people. Just to include everyone.
3. Piano, violin or some other orchestral music.
4. Close up on faces and people.
5. Reveal of logo with its own musical theme.
THIS IS NOT GOOD ADVERTISING IT IS THE SAME.
those shots are hooot
…forgettable. Wallpaper. Boring.
New logo looks like an open envelope. Stuff the cash in here please!
“CommBank’s diamond is an iconic and significant asset, and the single asset that is most recalled by its customers.” … so we spent a bunch of $$ needlessly changing it.
Looks like the loved the staff video so much the ran it on the Telly.
I just want to open a bank account, man
This is a bad montage ripoff of a lot of good montage ads
You advertising folk love big titles and must be falling over each other there are so many you to produce an ad.
Do you reckon she’s single?
Montage ad. Forced.
Logo redesign just looks terrible, will cost them heaps to roll out, and it just looks like a printing mistake.
Also the music- was it used in ActewAGL spot?
yoiks hard pass
The new design misses the mark. It looks like the design team got bored halfway through of removing the black and said “yep that will do”.
Also…HOLY HELL! How big is the account/creative team? So many big titles for such a little change? I’d also love to see the mood images presented to support this concept. I wonder how many times the creative team referenced the Optus ‘Yes’?!? I love it when a brand beats the market to the punch and decides to rebrand or refocus but this simply looks unfinished.
CBA could do better.
@menk rutson
it was originally based on the southern cross
Another manifesto.
These are created under conditions of months of strategy sessions pin pointing exactly what’s needed to be said (usually lots of things – ‘were Australian, we’re enabling, we’re brave, we’re caring, we’re community, we’re dynamic…) leaving no room to move creatively. But especially because agencies need to go through layers of research and layers of client stake-holders.
So what will get through research process and layers of clients easier?- an idea no one has seen before that can’t be visualised easily or a near-finished film (steal-a-matic) with a professional voice over and beautiful finished pictures taken from other ads/films? That’s right. For the unimaginative committees of ‘stake holders’ and research groups the finished film is going to win. And that’s why you see this ad over and over. It’s fit for purpose. (The purpose being survival.)
At best a forgettable reminder of category participation that could very easily be passed off as an ad for Optus or Telstra.
Aside from getting rid of the blacks, the logo is still the same?
This is dull and overdone.
‘YELLOW’ ……de de de de de da da da do do do do do do da de do
C an someone kern the type please?
Maybe they’re just trying to blend their two clients into one super yellow client.
I love it when banks write poems.
Looks like they just updated the boring and vanilla TVC we made at Ammirati Puris Lintas in 1999…this eventuated because we cut a “manifesto” to bring the new strategy to life. Big mistake. The client, Graham Ford, loved the stealomatic so much he wanted it as their new brand tvc…this was the man that killed “Which Bank”…probably the most memorable straplines in Australia. ‘Nuff said. Here is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4n6N0jgiK4&ab_channel=JohnGreig
What song is used in Can lives here?
This looks like one of those Gruen Transfer pitch ads: done by a junior team, with no budget and no time, just armed with a login of a shutterstock account and a computer with editing software on it. Or maybe they’re trialing an algorithm that makes bank ads at the push of a button. Either way: lame as. Those people at M&C should be so brainwashed by too many years in advertising and round of changes they can’t see for themselves this is NOT work worth sharing.
What is the name of the song playing in the background of the new ad please…
What does the line ” it lives over the door” mean? It is quite odd.