The great lead

Unprecendented in the Nigerian banking industry where a bank CEO is taking the great lead in a television commercial, Uzoma Dozie, CEO, Diamond Bank plc, is showing the way as he features as the lead character in a new television commercial for the Diamond Mobile App.

Yes, bank CEOs are the chief marketing officers but rarely do they play in TV commercials, a development that has not been explained, but Dozie, perhaps the youngest bank CEO, presently is introducing new trend as he has to personaly market his app in the TV commercial.

The CEO featuring in the TV commercial do not only bring the message home, but assists to accentuate the importance of the Diamond Mobile App product for upward mobile individuals who must satisfy both home and office fronts.

The new TVC conceptualised by 3XM Ideas and shot in the bank’s corporate head office in Lekki, Lagos, positions Diamond Mobile App as the reliable and ultra-efficient assistant for the high performing executive who likes to keep in sync with the personal side of things. In character, Dozie says: “As the CEO of Diamond Bank, time is precious and doing things right is important; quickly, efficiently and easy.”

Despite his visibly busy schedule, he shuns a shortlist of applications for personal assistant position, pointing out that there are some things he never likes to delegate – like booking flight tickets for his wife, getting movie tickets for his children as promised and buying tickets to events he wants to attend – all of which he simultaneously attends to on the go via his mobile phone. Then comes the clincher: “I can do all of these on my Diamond Mobile App. It’s beyond banking. Who needs a PA?”

The message in the TV commercial is that the Mobile App is not only an assistant to a busy CEO, but it allows him/her to attend to personal needs without delegating them. Afterall, must an office assistant or manager know where the CEO’s wife or family is travelling for holiday or the type of home movies they are watching or who the CEO is transferring money to? These can only be revealled when the assignment is delegated instead of using the Mobile App to handle them.

The creative agency described the package as ‘CEO branding,’ which is both a coinage and also a concept. This is the kind of branding and marketing where the CEO personality represents the brand. Some people who had done this successfully include Richard Brandson, Steve Jobs, among others, whose faces immediately remind you of their brand. This is also the intention of employing Uzoma Dozie in the TV commercial apart from marketing the App.

The creator of TV commercial, 3XM Ideas was perhaps thinking of innovative way to sell the app and still position the bank with cutting-edge technology. “Then the idea of who is the best person to sell the app than the CEO who heads the operation himself. He is a young man who has just taken over,” Steve Babaeko, CEO of the agency, told BusinessDay.

On the inspiration to use the CEO to pass the message, Babaeko said: “For us, there are usually two ways we approach a work – what do you want to say which is always crucial to us and how do we say it.

If you can manage these two angles very well you will always come up with fresh work. The content and the context are the two big things when you are developing creative work.”

AyonaTrimnell, divisional head, corporate communications, Diamond Bank, said in a report that “the TVC reinforces the bank’s message that the Diamond Mobile App is the ultimate personal assistant for easy, convenient banking.”

According to her: “The Diamond Mobile App is borne out of our commitment to continually offer value-added solutions that conveniently fit into the lifestyle of our customers. It is safe, easy to use and specifically developed for the success minded individual who is focused on maximising all life’s moments whenever or wherever they are.

“The Diamond Mobile App was recently upgraded with a Touch ID Feature which allows users seamless login to their accounts by simply identifying their fingerprints as an alternative to entering a User ID and password. The feature, available on iOS devices, marked the introduction of the service in Nigeria and also positioned Diamond Bank as an innovative institution that is progressively changing the face of banking in Nigeria with best-in-class customer-focused solutions.

“Other features of the Diamond Mobile App include funds transfer, bills payment, events ticket purchase, movie tickets purchase, online shopping, wallet top-up as well as searching, booking and making payment for both local and international flights.

“The bank profile has been rising in the recent time as it becomes innovative in banking operation. Last year, it introduced ‘Porting’ concept in the banking. Part of the the copy of the Ad which still runs in various media platforms reads “If your bank doesn’t give you a business advantage you need a new bank.”

The Ad created by the bank’s agency, X3M Ideas shows the pictures of various businessmen who apparently had enjoyed support from the bank. They obviously seem to be telling other businesmen who may not be getting financial support from their banks to ‘port,’ a jargon in telecoms industry.

Daniel Obi