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Stephen Semple:
This is the second time we’re talking about TD. TD Bank.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, you know what?

Stephen Semple:
It just dawned on me, just hit me right now. This is the second time, and very recently.

Matthew Burns:
Oh my God. You know what the other banks have gotta… And it’s a Canadian bank. We’re exposed to Canadian advertising, obviously, a little more. We’re both Canadian partners for the Wizard of Ads.

I love this because I’m a baseball human. You know that I run my own baseball clinics here in Nova Scotia. My grandfather played for the Cincinnati Reds, and my younger son played travel ball throughout the United States. We’re baseball people. I’m keyed into this one, but you are the one who brought it up.

Stephen Semple:
And I’m not a baseball person.

Matthew Burns:
At all. I know.

Stephen Semple:
Really, hardly at all. So here’s what I love, and there are going to be two ads we’re going to show, so we can show how it can be a campaign. But we’re going to start with the first one and the reason why this works. We’ve often talked about this whole idea. David Ogilvy, old ad guy, always talked about this whole idea of tying into the conversation around the water cooler.

So, of course, the last couple of years, with the run-up to the World Series, the Jays have been in the mix. This past year, the Jays made it to the World Series. So, of course, anything that features the Toronto Blue Jays, and especially a popular player on the Toronto Blue Jays, will catch attention.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
But instead of them just doing the classic, Hi, I’m George Springer, and I love TD Bank. That’s what I was supposed to say. Right? Right. I love TD Bank. They instead created a moment that we could all connect to, and I’m going to set the stage here. You are now the bank advisor for George Springer, and he’s come into your office to sign some documents. What would you want to do in that moment? And that’s what they captured. So let’s show that ad.

 

Banker:
We are almost done here. Mr. Springer, if you could just sign the bottom. Great. Well,

George Springer:
What’s this?

Banker:
It’s just for practice signatures.

George Springer:
Okay.

Banker:
One more here. Just like one more, maybe.

George Springer:
Why would I sign an empty picture frame?

Banker:
No reason.

Stephen Semple:
Right. We’d all totally want to do that.

Matthew Burns:
Why would I sign in an empty frame?

Stephen Semple:
And then I love, she starts doing the selfies, and then he gets into it. Right. We would all absolutely want to do that.

Matthew Burns: Here’s the thing. Wait a second. Yes. We’d all want the signature. Some of us would be more direct. Do you mind giving me your signature? Right.

Stephen Semple:
But we’d all face that. Well, how do we do it? Especially if you’re a little bit shy. Why am I signing this? No reason.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stephen Semple:
But the weird thing is, it actually created a shared experience, this false, this narrative, this made-up story, because we could all picture ourselves being in that situation, and we would want to do it either directly or indirectly. And all of a sudden, we’ve got this shared experience, this shared narrative, and we think a little bit, and it’s kind of fun. And it humanizes TD Bank. Absolutely. That person now becomes human to us. Exactly what we would want to do.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple:
To somehow get that signature and the selfie with George.

Matthew Burns:
Absolutely. Yeah. No, and it’s funny because the whole idea of sneaking it is what makes it funny, right? That’s trying to get away with something; it’s being a little bit coy. I really want that thing. George’s reaction is what you expect to get from a high-performing athlete, which is like, I’m going to question it, but I’m going to sign it because I need you not to roast me over there on social media anyway.

And then the parade of stuff, which is even better because listen, you’ve been to Comic-Con, Gary Bernier, one of our partners, loves to go to Comic-Con. And you have that one person who gets in line to get a signature, and they’re there for like 50…

Stephen Semple:
They’ve got like 8,000 things. Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Exactly. Right. And can you sign that one to my Uncle Jim… Right. So she’s, again, like you said, it’s that shared experience. It’s not just necessarily about baseball. It’s about how we behave in front of a celebrity while doing a celebrity endorsement. And so it’s really kind of meta, almost. But I loved the use of the girl, the banking representative, George.

Stephen Semple:
Well, and I even like how they painted George in a great light. He then got into it in terms of the last selfie, right?

Matthew Burns:
Oh, absolutely. Athletes aren’t necessarily known for their acting capabilities. So he did a really good job, all things considered. But when you said it can be a campaign, so let’s show another one and show how this one works.

 

Banker:
Thanks for coming in, Mr. Springer. Take a seat.

George Springer:
Sit? I mean, I usually stand. But why not? This is nice.

Banker:
Okay.

George Springer:
Seriously, this is living. Can I borrow this?

Banker:
Why? Hey, George, I’m going to need that back.

George Springer:
Okay.

Banker:
Oh, thanks.

Matthew Burns:
Because I am a baseball human and when you’re… Outfield sucks. I played baseball my entire life. I got to play at the college level. I’m short for a baseball player, so I just had to work really hard. But I played third base, and I played some first. That’s the hot corners. That’s where you get a lot of attention and admiration and stuff. And playing in the outfield sucks. And you stand around a lot.

So I love that they played on that because what it did for me is it brought them into the affinity group. When you brought the campaign, I said, Oh, the one with the chair, I think that’s awesome. And then you were like, no, no. The one I liked is the signature one. Two completely different sides of this, but both affinity groups, which is brilliant to me.

Again, I don’t know the marketing company for this. I don’t know what the mental state was in making these two ads, if they were trying to hit different sizes of the same coin. Wow. They did a good job.

Stephen Semple:
Way better way to do celebrity endorsement in the bank of the Toronto Blue Jays than in how most do it, where they go…. It’s so much better. Now, I was going to have a criticism, and I do have a criticism. I know there’s one thing that TD Bank blew on this. So for years, they’ve run a campaign where there’s the green chair, and the campaign was banking can be this comfortable.

So the whole idea, and look, they originally started it around their online banking because the whole idea is you could bank at home, their color is green. So this comfortable green chair, it kind of works. Now they’ve still got the comfortable green chair, and the line was ready to move you forward.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah.

Stephen Semple:
Well, a green chair, I’m supposed to sit in this green chair, and you’re ready to move me forward. That’s dumb. And this is when the green chair now becomes, it’s funny, at a previous sticky sales story, we talked about leaning into things and owning it. And when you don’t, it becomes hokey. That now made the green chair hokier.

Like, why am I looking at a green chair when it’s ready to move forward? Because a chair doesn’t move, and his chair’s not ready. Like, okay, I get the chair’s there because he was sitting in the chair. But look, if your campaign is now ready to move you forward, lose the chair.

Matthew Burns:
And especially when you’ve got something that worked for so long, you’re allowed to go back to that. You’re allowed to. You know what I mean?

Stephen Semple:
And the whole message of the ad was he’s comfortable in the outfield, and you dump the tagline, banking can be this comfortable. How dumb are you?

Matthew Burns:
Oh man. Alright. Well, listen, I would say, okay, marketing company, I said a lot of good things about you. Yes, he’s right, though. Unfortunately, TD, come on. Don’t miss the easy ones. Right. These are the layups, right? This is somebody pitching to you underhand. You should have smashed that. Right?

Stephen Semple:
And even if you wanted to stick with that, ready to move you forward, this is the one time you should have gone back to the old slogan, banking can be this comfortable. Then that would’ve tied it all together. That’s my criticism at the end.

And probably most people wouldn’t notice it; it’s the tagline and you’re moving on. But it also creates in the mind…. Look, let’s face it, you want it to be noticed. If it is noticed, you create a cognitive dissonance. Your whole messaging is now out of alignment. Correct?

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. No, no. A thousand percent in agreement. It’s funny, we were talking before we started, we were talking about the fact that the green chair, which is in the ads, is from a previous era, and you were the one who right away was like, Matt, it’s a miss. I’m like, oh man, we’re going to say good things about you, TD, you’re doing such good things. I still think you’re doing 10 times better than most banking companies.

Stephen Semple:
Totally. These are great ads that create positive feelings and are humorous, and they tie into the conversation at the time and are way better than what most do. It’s just fix up that little, clean up that little thing at the end, and you’ve got to 10 out of 10 rather than an eight. But you know what? In the world of banking, an “eight will make you stand out.

Matthew Burns:
Way out. This was good, and I like that it was a little more topical. We didn’t have to go into the archives for this one. This is some current marketing, and I love the TD. This is the second time in a row that TD has had current marketing in the last couple of years. They’re killing it and telling the right story.

Guys, if you like this one, let us know. Drop us a comment. We’d love to talk to anybody who wants to talk about advertising, marketing, anything about messaging and story, and how to move people. That’s what we do for a living. Love to talk to you, Steve. Thank you, my man.

Stephen Semple:
Thank you, Matthew.

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