(Extracted from How Asia Advertises by Jim Aitchison)

Launching An Internet Bank
The Problem:

Singapore's OCBC Bank launched Asia's first virtual bank in April, 2000. The new stand alone e-bank was called finatiq.com, a derivative of the words "financial" and "IQ".

Targeted at English-educated male and female PMEBs, aged 25 - 45, finatiq.com offered the one site to research, compare and transact all financial matters online. On the surface, the psychographics were good: the target group looked to the Internet for information and entertainment, and had no qualms about transacting online. But while they were comfortable with self-guided help and liked to make informed decisions, they were more Internet savvy than investment savvy. They wanted to take control of their finances, but financial management seemed dull, boring and tedious.

There were other barriers to overcome too. The business model was complex and the services were incomplete at the launch. The new bank had to be launched through unit trusts, a product still in its infancy in Singapore.

And then there was the names itself - difficult to read, spell, pronounce and remember.

The Strategy:

Given the complexity of the offering and the ambitious launch targets, the campaign was structured in two phases.

The first concentrated single-mindedly on communicating the name and what it stood for, stimulating target customer curiosity to visit the website the day they were made aware of it. Finatiq would have a friendly, rather quirky personality to break the mould of typically straight-laced bricks and mortar banks. (In fact, finatiq's TV commercials made no reference to the OCBC parent.) Getting rich should be fun, so finatiq's name should be launched with an irreverent tonality. The idea was that the letters "f-i-n-a-t-i-q" should be spelt out with a phonetic alphabet, but instead of the usual Foxtrot-India-Norway, the words chosen would be more locally relevant, like Fishball-Is-Nice-And-Toufu-Is-Questionable. The multimedia launch combined television, newspaper and financial magazines, outdoor adshels, posters in strategic business and commercial districts, and Internet banners. The campaign culminated with a contest offering a free unit trust investment.

In phase two, print ads used deliberately large type with bold headlines communicating finatiq's proposition of demystifying finance. Finatiq was positioned as being on the side of the consumer, helping to choose the best deals at the lowest cost, thereby enabling consumers to get rich online. The complexity of messages was lightened through humour and a very approachable executional style. The visibly cleaner layout ensured better standout in newspaper.

The Result:

Within the first two weeks of the launch, finatiq.com received many millions of hits. Positive media coverage was coupled with favourable response from site visitors, not to mention the thousands of people who called with their own versions of what "f-i-n-a-t-i-q" stands for.

Even though the unit trust prize was worth only $1,000, the contest garnered thousands of entries.

Phase two saw fixed deposit account holders increase by 190%. The total deposits surged by over 150%.