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Halifax promises “more human” banking in bold new makeover from New Commercial Arts

Halifax, one of the biggest UK banks, has a new chief customer officer in Lloyds Banking Group’s Catherine Kehoe, a shiny new ad agency (and customer experience agency) in New Commercial Arts and a bold new promise to “create a more human banking experience for its customers across all touchpoints.”

Which, given the way UK banks are usually depicted these days, is pretty ambitious.

This is NCA’s first big campaign for a major established brand – it made its debut for the World Out of Home Organization last summer with its #OurSecondChance global campaign – and with adam&eve founders James Murphy and David Golding, CCO Ian Heartfield from BBH and experience whizz Rob Curran from Wunderman Thompson it can reasonably be expected to hit the ground running.

Which it does with “It’s a people thing.”

LBG director of marketing communications Richard Warren says: “Halifax is a heartland of Britain brand. Our new ‘It’s a people thing’ campaign puts it right back where it belongs.”

NCA’s Heartfield says: “Halifax advertising has always been of the people and for the people – positive, relatable and distinctly British. Our story continues that tradition, set on what could be any street in the country, showing a snapshot of the richness of modern British life that plays out behind our front doors and on our pavements.”

Curran says: “This campaign is unusual in that it isn’t really a campaign. It’s a promise that goes hand in hand with ambitious and bold changes to almost every aspect of the bank’s customer experience.

“That’s what makes this so different; Halifax are doing this properly, paying as much attention to the experience as the they do the marketing of it.”

It’s big and brave from Halifax – imagine the stick it will receive if it doesn’t walk the walk – and the new agency delivers, finding that contemporary spin on middle Britain that defined John Lewis and others at adam&eveDDB. Forking out the money for Oasis encapsulates it: the noisy Mancs are now part of the establishment for many.

MAA creative scale: 9.

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