It has moody black and white images and a poetic voiceover with a social message. The words “we are blind” accompany images of a crowd walking past a woman sitting in a doorway. Few would guess, when the images are screened in an interval of Sunday’s X Factor, that they are an advert for NatWest bank.
The campaign is part of an effort by the bank’s owner, Royal Bank of Scotland, to distance itself from the empire-building ethos of Fred Goodwin, who plastered the RBS logo on Formula One cars and across Edinburgh airport.
The aim now is to run two separate banking brands: NatWest in England and Wales and “the Royal Bank” for its high street business in Scotland.
David Wheldon, chief marketing officer of RBS, said the 73% taxpayer-owned bank had decided not to ditch entirely the RBS name, which will be retained for the group’s name on the stock market and parent company. Another idea to turn RBS into lower case rbs was considered and thrown out.
“We are stepping back from this notion we are building a global brand,” said Wheldon, who refused to disclose how much the new campaign had cost.
Adverts for Scottish audience – with the slogan “The Royal Bank for Scotland” – will be aired during Saturday’s X Factor. The focus is on “the Royal Bank”, the way Wheldon said customers in Scotland referred to their bank, rather than RBS, a name which is likely to be linked to the financial crash for decades to come.
“The reputation that is really damaged is the RBS reputation,” said Wheldon. “For loyal customers, the reputation of ‘the Royal Bank’ is not as damaged.”
After a £45bn taxpayer bailout, a string of fines and allegations about its treatment of small business customers, the bank is now attempting to put its “legacy issues” behind it.
The ad campaigns are being launched as Ross McEwan begins his fourth year as chief executive amid the ongoing uncertainty of a fine for mis-selling mortgage bonds in the US. Last week, fears that Deutsche Bank could be facing a $14bn penalty dented RBS’s share price, which was 363p when McEwan took the helm but is 182p now.
A further hit to its reputation is expected from the publication of the Financial Conduct Authority’s investigation into its treatment of small business customers.
McEwan must also spin off 300 branches – imposed by the EU as a penalty for its bailout – which will eventually mean there will be no RBS branches in England and Wales and no NatWest branches in Scotland. Already delayed, the spin-off risks turning into a farce after Santander last week pulled out of talks to buy the branches. It also means that RBS branches in England and Wales will stay for the time being. The plan to rebrand them Williams & Glyn on the high street has been put aside.
RBS also has to set out how it will ringfence its high street bank from its investment banking operations; rumour has it that the bank is close to finalising a plan. Once it is done, it might make it easier to split up RBS, but, Wheldon said: “We are one bank and we want to stay one bank and a bank of brands.”
