The Brief

Building Societies have lost their relevance. Despite being built on the principles of a membership organisation (a mutual), they haven’t been able to connect with modern consumers.

Skipton Building Society is no different – with high brand awareness, but low brand relevance and consideration. Our brief was to change this.

The Red Thread Idea

Skipton have been fighting for fairness for 170 years. They believe everyone deserves the stability of a home, the confidence that comes from savings and the feeling of financial wellbeing.

Their dedication to fairness is stronger than ever, so we developed a Red Thread Idea to mark a return to the company’s founding principles: “Founded on Fairness”.

The Execution

Three strands of activity (mortgages, advice, loyalty) were developed to appeal to different audiences with relevant Skipton products, services and key messages under the ‘Founded on Fairness’ platform.

With low brand awareness and consideration, our creative needed to stand out, especially to engage the younger audiences, already turned off by FS advertising. Additionally, the Neo-Banks were disruptive and arguably doing a good job of appealing to and converting audiences in this space. In addition, Nationwide owned the ‘anti-bank’ building society leadership position.

Our creative needed to get us noticed, no mean feat on a smaller media spend. Every asset from brand top of funnel activity down to conversion media and in-branch and web collateral needed to work hard and be ‘on message’ to bring to life our ‘red thread’ idea.

Our brand creative sought to bring to life everyday unfairness through relatable and humorous scenarios. The TV spots feature character actor Simon Farnaby, best known for his performances in Ghosts and The Detectorists (well known to younger audiences). Farnaby plays an anti-hero, who is treating his unsuspecting victims unfairly. Skipton Building Society, in contrast, is the embodiment of all things fair.

Three hero TVCs to talk to the three main audiences and corresponding Skipton product offers – fairer mortgages, fairer financial advice, fairer treatment of members.

All funny and engaging, but clearly landing Skipton’s purpose and how they can help support their audiences through their way of doing things.

Audio was also a key activity strand. Podcast media was selected to engage a younger audiences. We also recorded radio with Simon Farnaby to ensure that the audiences were reached at a number of media touch points with the ‘red thread’ idea.

The campaigns also featured hard working print, digital display and social to bring to life the key features and benefits of products for each audience, under each messaging strand. Performance and re-targeted media ensured audiences were re-targeted to action after seeing the brand assets.

Owned channels were designed using our VI recommendations and brand copy tone of voice guidelines. Web, organic social, and in-branch displays all ensured we were on message at every point in the conversion funnel.