It’s a rare brand that finds and claims success in being No.2. But for Jacaranda Finance, that silver-medal spot is exactly where it wants to be.
In a bold play on its brand identity, the award-winning online digital lender has rolled out a new television campaign centred on the premise that ‘When the banks say no, give us a go.’
It’s a call to action that aims to solidify Jacaranda’s reputation as the next-best choice for people whose credit application for a car or personal loan up to $25,000 has been rejected by mainstream lenders.
“Across the 10 years Jacaranda Finance has been in the market, we’ve continued to evolve our understanding of our customer base,” said Jacaranda Finance head of growth Matthew Wong.
“It’s a learning process that has allowed us to bring a laser-sharp focus to our value offering, which is to be No.1 at being No.2. Or, to put it another way, we’re proud to be able to serve as the best back-up option for everyday Australians who need finance but are rejected by the banks.
“That’s why the time felt right to take our creative in a new direction.”
Wong said the ethos behind the television commercial wasn’t about trying to compete with the banks, but about educating customers that there was another way to seek personal or car finance if their initial lender of choice said no.
“Without getting too technical, a lot of banks use rigid, predefined rules based on credit scores to determine whether a consumer qualifies for a loan,” he said. “This can unfairly exclude a lot of responsible customers.
“At Jacaranda Finance, however, we’ve developed an advanced scoring system that takes into account people’s current and recent financial behaviour, based on their bank transactions. This more nuanced approach, which looks at how people spend their money to understand their credit risk, is what really sets us apart as a lender.”
Sarah Morgan, managing director of Brisbane-based communications, engagement and marketing agency Bespoken, said the new call to action of ‘give us a go’ emerged organically during a taxi ride after a meeting with the Jacaranda team.
“The thing we couldn’t stop talking about was the markedly different approach to assessing credit applications, and the fact that Jacaranda – from CEO Daniel Wessels down – was incredibly keen to draw that sharp delineation to traditional finance and its strong reliance on credit scores,” Morgan said.
“To that point, a lot of Jacaranda’s outreach had been focused on their value-adds, such as their free education program to help people improve their credit score.
“However, we saw the freshest opportunity as the core message to everyday Australians that banks are not the start and close of the lending conversation.
“After six months working with Jacaranda Finance across media, creative and marketing, we’re excited to see it all coalesce in the launch of our first campaign together.”
Tim Harding, creative director of Brisbane studio The Little Rogue, encouraged the campaign’s stakeholders to push the envelope in translating their message into something unforgettable.
“Jacaranda’s business model is built on disruption, so it made sense their creative should also look to disrupt the environment in which it would land – one where people’s attention is often split across multiple sources of interest and information, from streaming channels and mobile phones to video games or a physical book,” Mr Harding said.
“We knew we would only have a small window in which to seize their attention, and that meant it had to be high impact from the get-go.”
The end result? A 15-second television commercial that begins – quite literally – with three seconds of death-metal-worthy screaming.
As Harding explains, though, it’s not about grabbing attention for the sake of it.
“We want people to give the advertisement their attention so they can realise the scope of lending opportunities available for everyday Australians,” he said.
“After all, many people are familiar with the dissatisfaction and silent scream that can come from a bank saying ‘no’. Jacaranda Finance has just given it a voice.”
Morgan said the TV commercial would air in metropolitan and regional markets along the east coast. Once embedded it would extend to other channels including out-of-home, radio and digital.
It has already had a soft launch on socials, delivering immediate impacts including a 52% increase in click-through rates during the testing phase on iOS and Android.
To Wong, it just proves what Jacaranda Finance already knows.
“Since entering the market 10 years ago, we’ve become better and better at assessing risk for a segment of consumers that the credit bureaus don’t hold a lot of data about, whereas a lot of banks have remained stock still with their heavy reliance on traditional credit scores,” he said.
“So, for us, this new campaign is not only about encouraging people to give us a go, it’s about educating them that we’ll also look at their financial situation with a fresh set of eyes.”
Credits
Client: Jacaranda Finance
Communications and Marketing Lead: Bespoken Agency
Creative Director: Little Rogue
Director of Photography: Matt Davies
