HSBC's advert for UK mortgages showing a US-style house
How significant is cultural relevance to a successful advert? Well, not at all, it would seem, if we are to assume that HSBC’s advertising agency hasn’t made an enormous gaff.
If cultural relevance is important, then HSBC may feel that its advertising agency has handed it a bit of a pig-in-a-poke with the bank’s latest advert for its fixed-rate mortgage. Take a look at it, especially that tethered house. Notice, that it’s an American house.
You’d be forgiven for asking how I can be so sure it’s American. Well, I suppose I can’t be absolutely sure. It could be a Canadian house, I suppose. But, it certainly isn’t British – have you ever seen a house that looks like this anywhere in Britain – ever? But, actually, I’m pretty certain it’s American – I lived in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania for three years, and that style of house was everywhere. Aluminium (or, rather, aluminum) siding, the chairs on the porch, the mock-shutters, the beige colour. I’ve seen hundreds.
Of course, my interests lie in online rather than billboard adverts, and so I followed the link shown on the advert – hsbc.co.uk/ratematcher (note that .co.uk domain, obviously geographic relevance matters sometimes) – to see what imagery was being used there. Bizarrely, however, this address confusingly redirects to www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/ (the HSBC home page), which seemed to have no content directly relevant to mortgages, apart from one link, at all. Why put up huge adverts quoting a web address that doesn’t exist? I didn’t bother browsing for the relevant content.
HSBC describes itself as “The world’s local bank”. Not that local, it seems. How do you think it ended up advertising UK mortgages using images that are synonymous with middle-America, sub-prime mortgage misery: in fact, just the kind that largely led to the recent banking crisis? Is this really the image that HSBC wanted to portray? Did it use a US-based advertising agency? Or, did the creative genius who put this ad together not realise that architectural styles, especially domestic, are deeply redolent of national identity? Or, did the agency just run out of money and couldn’t afford anything but a stock photograph – even so, has it not heard of Flickr?
My guess would be that what we have here is another example of visual design triumphing over function, the function in this case being the transmission of a relevant message to a geographically-specific audience. I bet that image of a house was just the right colour, just the right shape, and just the right size for the creative treatment. And, that’s probably all that mattered.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Having worked on HSBC at various times in my career, inclusivity under the ‘world’s local bank’ is both a blessing and a curse. Sure, you get to choose from a broader range of visual material but then again, in trying to ensure that local, tactical marketing is in tune with the broader strategic direction of the brand, you invariably achieve a state of compromise that misses the point.
Illustration is always the safe compromise when it comes to furnishing these ads with visuals and affords much greater latitude and ‘visual freedom’. Look at Lloyds TSB – they’ve used a distinctive, consistent style which has its own charm and identity which injects much needed personality. You wouldn’t question the appearance of a house which had American cues in their advertising because it’s what it symbolises not what it actually represents.
By the way, I hope you’re not suggesting Flickr is a help yourself source of free imagery?
Thanks Alex – totally agree with the comment about using illustration; I was taught very early on in my career that it was the option of choice when you could not be certain how photographic imagery would be interpreted by the audience. One would imagine that it would be an obvious approach for a world-wide brand needing tactical local execution.
There is very interesting article about Creative Commons and Flickr on ReadWriteWeb – http://bit.ly/AQSi2. I use Creative Commons photos from Flickr on this blog (see http://bit.ly/WA9nV as an example), and it’s a shame if Flickr is making this more difficult to use, as would seem the case if this article is accurate.