Banks, Brains, Beans and Brunch

As of this writing it’s the first of January 1999, which means it’s either time to reflect on the previous year or contemplate the coming 12 months. Since one of the best ways to seem foolish is trying to predict the future, let’s take a look back at some of 1998’s creative offerings.

Bank of America The Bank of America ran a series of branding ads targeting the Asian-American community in California.

Promoting its language services in Korean, Vietnamese and both Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, the bank hoped to increase what was already a profitable niche. Asian Americans represented more than 10% of Bank of America’s new accounts. Created by K&L West, Los Angeles, a unit of Kang & Lee, New York-based specialists in Asian-American marketing, the ads ran on a dozen Asian-language stations.

All three ads focused on the multi-generational aspect of Asian-American families. One, a DRTV spot, highlighted the plight of the mother-in-law who did not speak English and has to rely on her son and daughter-in-law to run errands, like banking. The children are surprised when mother can suddenly do her own banking, thanks to an in-language service. An 800 number is provided to respondents.

The Chinese spots proved to be a small hit, with the mother-in-law becoming a recognizable “celebrity.” Changes at the bank have put any ideas to continue the ads and follow her path to independence in abeyance.

The ads have won an award or two, and deservedly so. In our opinion, this ad speaks directly to an experience of its target audience as being both Asians and Americans concurrently.

And the mother-in-law is a hoot. She may not have English, but she does have attitude.

Braindance A few months ago, Newsletters Plus, an Atlanta marketing communications firm, decided to change its name, always a risky business.

According to founder and president Moira Shanahan, the agency had outgrown its old name in terms of the depth and variety of the services it provided.

After much deliberation, the agency chose a new name, Braindance, and sent out a dimensional package to promote it.

As a rule, dimensional packages don’t quite hit the mark. The object, whatever it is, usually winds up being given to the secretary’s child, niece or nephew, none of whom are likely to be decision-makers.

In this case, it works. The particular mix of pencil, mouse pad and sharpener not only relate to the services being offered, but also have a good chance of being used by the recipients. (Well, the mouse pad stayed on my desk.)

The question here has to do with the choice of the new name. Shanahan claims the name combines the best elements of rain dance and brainstorm. That may well be, but “Braindance” is too close to “brain dead” for us to believe it’s the best choice.

Catalina Marketing In the fall, Catalina Marketing sent out a modern-day version of “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

Done up as a children’s book, the production included four-color on heavy card stock. Essentially, the giant is Jack’s boss and is “slain” by the client using Catalina. The boss, in this case, actually retires, and the retelling seems to be a long shaggy-dog story building to the punch line: “If you think the Catalina Marketing Network is just another coupon company, you don’t know Jack.”

To give credit where credit is due, since an executive is unlikely to receive any other pieces looking like a children’s book in the mail, the piece is likely to be memorable and therefore, perhaps, effective.

But Catalina goes astray developing the story.

The giant-Jack’s boss-is a woman. She, the story explains, isn’t easy to please.

“It was well-known in the office that the Big Boss only knew true happiness in the rare moments she had time to play her ‘magic’ harp.” She gets to play her harp-and live happily ever after-after Jack gets a better job and she can retire on the profits.

While the (ex-)boss is happier at home with her harp, Jack finds happiness at work, it seems.

Any feminists want to take this one on? Of course, if Jack and the boss were the same sex, there wouldn’t be even the ghost of an issue.

Catalina topped that with a holiday mailing of a CD of carols and other Christmas music. Apparently they weren’t targeting followers of Islam, Buddhism or Judaism with that one.

Bell+Howell I’m not certain what I’m going to do with the ostrich egg Bell+Howell sent with the note, “Some people like their eggs hard-boiled, other prefer them soft. Now Bell+Howell is hatching some really big news about hard and soft preferences.”

The yolk is forced because the punch line is not quite over easy, while the dimensional itself leaves the recipient scrambling with what to do with a 6-1/2-inch-long egg.