CIMB Bank gives Singaporeans free rides
Ever been taken for a ride by your bank?
The first few passengers were a little wary. They had to ask the taxi driver to repeat himself. The idea of a free taxi ride seemed almost a little too surprising. But that is exactly the whole idea. Conceptualised by Ogilvy RedCard Singapore, ‘Be surprised by money’ is the brand mantra that CIMB Bank is living by in Singapore. Now, they have launched another phase in their brand campaign. Since last Wednesday, five ‘gift’ taxis wrapped up in CIMB ribbon and topped with a little model ‘Money Man’ took to the roads. Their surprise? Free rides for everyone, to any destination in Singapore, courtesy of CIMB Bank.
Of course, the first few passengers were a little wary. It was a genuine surprise, only revealed at the end of their journeys.
“In the highly competitive and relatively small domestic market in Singapore, our competitive positioning and call-to-arms is about challenging the status quo, breaking the norms from the past, and questioning every part of our operations to find new ways of getting things done. At the end of it all, we want to be able to deliver an innovative retail banking experience to our clients. As encapsulated by the tagline of our marketing campaign – we want retail banking consumers in Singapore to constantly be “Surprised by Money”!”, commented Mrs Coreen Kwan, Head of Retail Bank, CIMB Bank Singapore.
The taxis will be on the roads until 20th October.
7 Comments
Sounds suspiciously like the Guinness black cabs in London a few years back, and the offer of a free cab ride at the end of each journey reminding people ‘Good things come to those who wait’…
Interesting idea. But what does it say about the brand? They’ll take you for a ride?
Wonder when they’ll get to the next stage of the campaign where they show how cimb surprises you with real solutions. So far it’s a nice meaningless campaign that’s probably got them no customers at all.
9.50am…they will never get to that stage because nearly all bank advertising is based on the trick of saying a lot without saying anything.
Ive always wondered about that CIMB tagline — Be surprised by money — think they unveiled it just after bear sterns, lehman brothers, wall street and most of wall street took everyone by ‘surprise’…and took their hard earned $$$ along with them.
I would imagine a good tag for a bank in such times would be ‘No surprises’.
But I still dont get the connection between free cab rides and the banks tagline. How are you being surprised by money when you get a free cab ride? In the guinness example, it makes perfect sense…but this one does not close that loop at all well.
Does everything have to make perfect sense? All I know is that I would look out for such a cab and I would also remember such a pleasant surprise. Better than a whole lot of stale advertising that makes sense and is so logical
5.38 since you’re most probably the person responsible for this idea, your comments are perfectly understandable….and the answer to your first question is ‘Yes’.
I would worry if everyone here, especially those just starting out in this profession, interpreted your post to mean that its ok for ideas to ‘almost make sense’.
It’s not.
Small bank, small ideas.