So why Ameritrade?
They come up in aces in useful and entertaining information,
broad emotional appeal, and a delightful inventiveness.
We saw two series of ads.
The first was based on humorous plays on the name of stocks while emphasizing
Ameritrade's low commission. For example, a socialite in ballgown tells us
"I dropped my Playboy for 8 dollars", and then has to reassure her dapper
but dim escort he hasn't been given the boot.
The second series features quirky but endearing stories about ordinary people
who use Ameritrade: the boss who buys 100 shares of K-Mart with the help
of his neon-haired employee, or the housewife who uses the children's computer
to invest in biotech stocks.
Throughout both, the Ameritrade ads manage to show a wide cross section of folks
(in race, age, gender, net worth) taking advantage of Ameritrade's low price,
functionality, and ease of use - a good balance of information and emotional
appeal and sense of humour.
They deliver a clear message while providing great entertainment value.
Each spot is rich with details and terrific dialogue.
There is no way we can do them justice in prose, so you should try and catch them on
CNBC yourself sometime.
The theme of ordinary people runs through the E*Trade and Discover Brokerage
ads as well. The parental dollars (of Morgan-Stanley-Dean-Witter) show up in the
high quality of the Discover ads. In its campaign, a series of ordinary people
- tow truck driver, bartender, dead-head, and grandmother - are diss'ed by
Wall Street types before the tables are turned to reveal their multimillionaire
(or is it multibillionaire?) status.
The revenge of the underdog is a core part of the American psyche, and these ads
play humorously on the theme. However, we downgraded Discover's rankings
because of its double-G rating on the Fear-Greed Scale.
While we can almost see industry self-parody in Discover's hyperbolic ads,
we think the ads appeal
excessively to the lottery/get fabulously wealthy in the market element and stoke
speculative fever among the inexperienced.
As we write this, online broker ads are facing more scrutiny by regulators and
business press and this series of ads may have been pulled.
Contrast the Discover ads with those of runner-up Fidelity Investments.
The Fidelity series is about investing in the market, and how Fidelity can help you.
They are no less steeped in self-promotion, perhaps even more blatantly so.
But they takes an educational approach, about IRA's, returns, ups and downs
of the market, chasing hot tips, etc.
The series features Fidelity superstar Peter Lynch, so poker-faced, flat, geeky
and serious as to be totally credible (even if you don't know about his investment record).
The ads play him off against the comic talents of Lily Tomlin and Don Rickles
(sample, "I've got money sitting in places even my in-laws couldn't find").
It's good entertainment to go with the message.
The other runner up, E*Trade, takes quite a different approach. Its ads follow in the
footsteps of their first (and highly successful) "Boot Your Broker" campaign.
Although the focus is on investor self-reliance and empowerment, many episodes
are characterized by superb portrayal of the slickest, scummiest, most self-serving
brokers you can imagine. In one without a broker, the subtext of fools
standing in the way of financial success is packaged in a delightfully imaginative
monologue about jujubeans. The creativity and sharp focus of E*Trade's advertising
message suffered somewhat in our rankings because of this element of demonization.
The greed factor also makes small cameo appearances in the form of an estate-like
home and a yacht, but is negligible by comparison.
But what about Schwab, the online goliath?
For all its stunning three-peat vision of the industry
(discount brokerage, mutual fund marketplace,
and online brokerage), Schwab's ads are disappointing.
While some online brokers (like DLJ Direct) are noticeable by their absence, if you
pay attention, there are actually several Schwab ads lurking on the channels.
We have vague memories of ads of "real people" interviews, done sort-of cinema
verité
style, but the message isn't clear. The one interview featuring the extremely telegenic
and charming Mr. Schwab himself fares better as he talks about functionality and ease of use.
Interestingly, during the Academy Awards, Schwab showed ads featuring an airline captain
and a surgeon having panic attacks about their finances, spacing out mid-landing and during
an operation respectively. Message? Make the right (life and death) decision with help from
Schwab. We've not seen these ads again.
In sum: Out of focus. Maybe Schwab is still shaping its identity as it moves
beyond plain discount brokerage to challenge the full service brokers.
It is worth noting that other full service firm that pushes advice also had
advertising playing on the fear factor. PaineWebber (coming online to a web
browser near you this summer) has ads that feature scenes of groups. We hear the
thoughts of the different people, worrying about various aspects of their financial life.
The only contented voice in each sequence thanks the firm for its advice.
Hmmm. If only we could get these characters to huddle with those in the E*Trade ads…
The smaller online brokerage firms tend to have less elaborate ads with "just-the-facts"
types of messages. For an Honourable Mention
we picked Siebert & Co. for its immortal line "I wasn't born
with a mouse in my hand" (take that, all you point-and-grunt GUI designers out there).
Brown & Co.'s ads are also memorable for the unique cartoons featuring a tight focus on
experienced traders and a self-deprecating sense of humour.
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