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Following a rather flashy (and bemusing) press campaign on Sunday (wraparounds are very annoying) Lloyds Bank has added some meat to the potatoes with this film, from RKCR/Y&R presumably, hailing its new TSB-free existence.
The new TSB is a local bank, it seems – whatever that may mean. Actually it seems to mean it has local branches and doesn’t deal in funny financial products like credit default swaps, but neither does its erstwhile parent (still the owner until the TSB floats).
So Lloyds has to be something else and it seems that its USP is ‘moments that matter,’ a rather bland proposition whose effectiveness (or not) is all in the telling. Here’s the first tale, about the struggle of, in this case a youngish man, to get on the housing ladder.
It’s not the greatest ad you’ll ever see but it tells a familiar story accurately enough. It will be interesting to see if this ‘new ‘ competition among the banks (300-odd RBS branches are due to be spun off as William & Glyn’s soon) actually leads to a better deal for customers.
What will probably happen in the UK is that the biggies – Lloyds, Barclays, RBS-owned Nat West and HSBC – continue to make the running with their smaller brethren trying up to compete by offering marginally better deals to richer customers. Which isn’t really the point.
