Nationwide Building Society is launching the third instalment of its consumer television ad campaign featuring Emmy award-winning actor Dominic West.
The deployment of the campaign will coincide with the British Open Golf Tournament which takes place between 18 and 21 July 2024. That tournament is sponsored by HSBC.
In Nationwide’s latest chapter of its “good way to bank” campaign, West assumes his role as a fictional banker and is set on a golf course where West’s character boasts of his employer’s growing profits.
“Shareholders are the beating heart of this bank”, West says, in a pointed comment to his fictional assistant, played by comedian Sunil Patel.
The voiceover for the ad later goes on to explain that Nationwide shared its profits with nearly four million of its members over the past year.
Richard Warren, director of brand marketing and corporate affairs at Nationwide, said: “Nationwide is the main challenger to the banks, and for the second year running, we are sharing our profits with our members via our Fairer Share Payment.
“This is the difference of a modern mutual and is another example of what makes Nationwide a good way to bank.”
It is a bold return for the Nationwide campaign after its previous ad was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading consumers.
The previous advert triggered complaints from banks with shareholders, such as Santander, which prompted the advertising watchdog to investigate further.
In its subsequent ruling in April, the watchdog said: “The ads were seen in the context of financial institutions closing their high street branches, and the ASA considered consumers would interpret the ads in relation to that scenario.
“Because we considered that consumers would understand from the ads that Nationwide would not be closing branches in the long-term future and that they had not recently closed branches, we concluded that the ads were misleading.”