Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

We all know that unoriginal and predictable marketing isn't a recipe for success, so you’d think that we’d be seeing less of it these days. Sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case and every once in a while an example appears that proves what can happen if you follow the dull and predictable path.

Apologies for the dodgy image quality (one from a phone, one a screenshot) but you should get the drift. The same concept is appearing on billboards and in print everywhere at the moment.

The top image shows a high street bank using messages spelled out in enormous red bricks as a metaphor for strength and dependability. The image below shows an entirely different high street bank showing how strong and dependable it is by spelling out its proposition in large reddish bricks.

In an industry filled with brands struggling to differentiate themselves this seems like a bit of a failure to me.

I can imagine the marketing directors of those banks on day one of the campaign walking through their respective train stations after a big lunch feeling pretty happy with themselves right up until the moment they spot each others huge billboards.

So, can you name the banks in the ads above?