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Cape Town – You may love him, but you probably hate him. The point is you remember him. Steve has been among us for over three years, trying hopelessly to switch us to Beep Bank. Now his new bank wants consumers to Un-Steve themselves. And some Steves are not taking it lightly.
In this story:
Audio: Interview with FNB chief marketing officer Bernice Samuels.
Video: The Steve song
Audio: The latest Steve adverts
In 2011, First National Bank (FNB) introduced consumers to ‘Steve’, an endearing and well-meaning, but sometimes naïve call centre agent working for Beep bank, who unsuccessfully attempted to switch FNB customers.
“Steve became known as something of an anti-hero; and whether people loved to love him or loved to hate him, consumers all over South Africa definitely got to know and remember him,” said FNB chief marketing officer Bernice Samuels.
The Steve campaign, which launched in June 2011, succeeded in securing 1.7 million new retail banking customers to their base in the first year. Steve got so, er, unpopular that FNB and agency DDB South Africa won an Apex gold and grand prix at the Apex Awards on June 10, 2014.
READ: FNB CEO apologises for #TwitterFail
In October, FNB launched the ‘Un-Steve Yourself’ campaign, which was an evolution of the previous Steve campaign. “At the end of the first phase, Steve actually was won over by the value proposition of FNB and he moved,” she said. “He un-Steved himself.”
Fin24’s Matthew le Cordeur discusses Steve with Samuels.
Listen:
Looking back at Steve’s life
“We all have ‘Steve’ moments in our lives; those times when we think or act from a place of naivety, apathy, fear, or even ignorance,” she said. “People are inclined more toward satisfactory decisions that make do, instead of the 'best' decisions due to lack of information and the effort it requires doing this for every purchase decision”.
Everyone has their favourite Steve moment. For Samuels, it was when he called Dr Jacobsen, who truly put him in his place. While on the phone to Steve, he paid his daughter’s university fees, moved Forex and opened a multi-currency account while he was online and on the phone to Steve. “It was just such a fun execution,” she said.
Her other favourite was the Steve Song:
Listen:
“What was super about the concept was that banking is pretty serious,” she said. “It’s got all these stereotypes wrapped around it in a category, one of which is that it is quite hierarchical, it’s pretty robotic, it’s quite manual and we were just trying to get people to look at their banks differently and hopefully we came with a bit of a personality that was quite engaging.”
Un-Steve yourself
While the ‘un-Steve’ campaign takes a light-hearted and often humorous approach, the message it delivers is hard-hitting and designed to make South African banking customers take a serious look at whether they are truly getting the banking experience they deserve, said Samuels.
She said this campaign is aimed at looking at the less flamboyant aspects of banking that could give customers incremental value. “You can change your pin online,” she said as an example of one of their messages.
“We’re going further under the water line this time round,” she said.
She said the first phase of Steve was confined to retail banking only. As the bank saw traction in the wealth and premium space, they saw the need for Steve to move there. “The penny dropped,” she said. “That made us realise that we could use the same idea broadly and scale it across the business.”
“We have a consistent concept and campaign that we can pull through at an FNB level rather than at a segment level uniquely,” she said.
Listen to the tracks here:
Anti-Steves on social media
The Un-Steve campaign has had some critics on social media. Juanita Nortje wrote on Twitter: “Not sure how I feel about #FNB typecasting.”
Tom Eaton wrote: “Every time I hear a ‘Steve’ ad insulting me because I don't bank with @FNBSA I'm going to insult them right back. Hey FNB! You're cretins!” He added: “FNB ‘Steve’ campaign: you're a giant loser but if you join our club you won't be a loser any more. That's not advertising, that's Mean Girls.”
@mcleodd Hi,It’s nothing personal, merely an extension of our previous “Steve” campaigns. Some of the coolest people we know are named Steve
— RbJacobs (@Rbjacobs) October 17, 2014@ChrisRoper @TomEatonSA @samanthaperry I like the FNB Steve ads but I will fight to the death for the right for anyone to say they're crap
— Chris Moerdyk (@chrismoerdyk) October 22, 2014Those "Don't be a Steve" FNB ads were probably referring to Steve Hofmeyr.
— Time Traveller (@Anele_Nzimande) October 24, 2014FNB responded with a letter, headed: “It's nothing personal, Steve.”
“If your name happens to be Steve, we want to say that we have absolutely nothing against you, or your fine name. In fact, here at FNB, some of our closest friends are named Steve.”
“The thing is, anyone (even your Mom) can be a 'Steve'. These 'Steves' walk and operate among us. They are real and they need all the help they can get, to once and for all Un-Steve themselves.”
The fact that he was noticed was what mattered, said Samuels. “We had an equal measure of people loving to hate him as loving to love him.”
And now for some Sorbet:
@SorbetGroup embracing the @FNBSA un-Steve campaign! I assume you're FNB-banked?? #loveit pic.twitter.com/4Ol378zpCR
— SammyRose (@sammyrose_d) October 28, 2014
