Challenge

People didn’t tend to take much interest in their mortgages. Because mortgages were always, just, sort of, there. Minding their own business. Not getting up to much. Even with plenty of choice and heaps of copycat products, the mortgage market felt a bit deflated. Santander decided it was time to shake things up.

In 2019 there were 132 different mortgage providers. That’s a lot of mortgages to choose from. Throw in some complicated processes and an awful lot of jargon and you’re looking at a seriously tricky choice. Santander needed to cut through the stress and get to the emotional truth of what buying house is really about; we love our homes, even if we don’t love the process of buying one.

Solution

We created the Bank of Antandec, a new bank fronted by the nation’s favourite duo. We showed that whilst Ant and Dec know what the nation want, they don’t have the expertise to help people buy their dream home.

Thankfully, Santander were on hand to help. With a familiar brand identity, The Bank of Antandec created distinctive, well-branded assets and showed people that Santander were the real mortgage experts. 

We launched with a series of media takeovers, followed by roadblock TV advertising and a comedic cover-wrap on the UK’s most-read newspaper. Next we targeted customers at all stages of the mortgage buying journey. And, we engaged their staff and encouraged them to share the campaign on their personal channels.

Impact

By combining emotionally driven messaging with a stand-out creative idea, we turned apathy into affinity and earned record-breaking branding scores.