With banks in the forefront of the global financial meltdown that is still a recent memory, you might think that credit unions would be more popular with consumers. But credit unions fly largely below the public's radar; traditionally, they don't advertise much.

One reason: a customer of a credit union must become a "member," since the credit union is actually structured like a membership organization, and credit unions have typically targeted and sometimes restricted their memberships to a particular audience, like teachers or nurses.

Trading on the public's dislike of banks, credit unions have been more prominent of late. Many credit unions have opened up their memberships to anyone and they're beginning to promote themselves, often as "friendlier" alternatives to banks. Credit unions have also adopted a tried and true strategy of much bigger advertisers — using celebrity endorsements.Continue reading...

If they didn't know before, most people now realize that the screechy, nasal daffy voice emanating from the Aflac duck in its commercials for the last decade was that of comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

They also likely know that, in a masochistic move that bordered on financial (if not professional) suicide, Gottfried inappropriately tweeted some crass jokes about the Japanese disaster and was summarily dismissed as the brand's mascot voice by the insurance company.

Little did he know (or at least, care) that three quarters of Aflac's revenue comes from its Japanese business.

Aflac, meanwhile, is moving on. With an advertising mascot that has literally been the voice of the brand for a decade, it's not about to let the duck die — or even duck the controversy.Continue reading...

American Express is expanding its longstanding Membership Rewards program points to serve as “Social Currency.” 

The big idea: when points are redeemed, they can be applied to a broad range of activities of a social and digital nature — as AmEx demonstrated in a unique partnership with Foursquare at South by Southwest.Continue reading...

There are many good reasons that Aflac this week dismissed Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of the Aflac duck for his remarks about the crisis in Japan. And they merely started with the insensitivity of his comments.

Another reason is that Japan is where it does the bulk of its business, making the nation the most important market for Aflac’s life and health insurance policies — much more so than the company’s other market, the United States. While Gottfried was not the voice of the Aflac duck in Japan, the Columbus, Georgia-based company needed to be especially sensitive to any harm his remarks might have caused in that beleaguered country.

As its website notes, "Aflac is the number one insurance company in Japan in terms of individual policies in force and the largest foreign insurer in Japan in terms of premium income. Aflac Japan also ranks first in the number of individual policies in force among all of Japan's life insurers and is the fifth most profitable foreign company in any industry in Japan."Continue reading...

Lessons are always best remembered with stories. Even hard-core financial information. With that in mind, Thomson Reuters just launched its new branding campaign today: The Knowledge Effect, which touts the benefits of providing professionals in the legal, healthcare and accounting industries the information they need, via Thomson Reuters' range of professional products and services.

Thomson Reuters’ bread-and-butter is the intelligence information industry, so The Knowledge Effect aims to better communicate the full range of products and services the brand offers, adding real examples to show the impact on users. 

Display advertising, mobile marketing, iPad applications and a microsite are supporting the campaign, along with street marketing in Toronto, New York and London — timed to coincide with the kick-off of the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Switzerland.Continue reading...

BMW's Mini line says it will have the first slow-motion 3D ads, in a campaign breaking this week. "Mini vs. Monster" (teased above and after the jump) will debut in 3D cinema ads before making its way, in standard 2D, to TV and the web.Continue reading...

Android is booming thanks to Asia.

Boeing boosts jet prices, drops short-range carrier.
 
Boston Scientific abandons sale of pain-management unit.  

Brett Favre sits out Vikings vs. Giants game, ends streak at 297 NFL games. 

Comcast tests combo web/TV service.

Costco rebuffed by U.S. Supreme Court in challenge against Swatch's Omega watch brand.Continue reading...

One of the toughest challenges facing brand strategists is insurance.

For starters, it's not sexy. Often purchased solely on price, the true brand value of an insurance company does not become apparent until the day it is needed. For many, who will never "need" their insurance company on any significant way, that day never comes, leaving price sensitivities the primary brand identifier. Is it any surprise insurance advertising so often focuses on "saving more"?

One tactic branders use is create a memorable pitch man. The theory is that a stand-out character as the face of the brand helps with recall and brand association, and overrides consumers' fixation on costs by creating a memorable brand halo. That brand association need not even be an emotionally positive one. But all these pitchmen (-women, -critters) floating around can cause confusion.

So we put together an insurance branding quiz to show how it works. Can you identify the faces of a dozen major insurance brands?Continue reading...