Pair land £1,000 prize for positive account switching ad

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 09-Jun-05, 12:00

LONDON - Freelance team Vincent McEvoy and David Ryland have won £1,000 for creating the best bank account switching ad in the second 'World's Toughest Briefs' competition, run by the Financial Times and advertising ideas marketplace OpenAd.net.

The brief challenged creatives to persuade people to change bank accounts, an action which surveys often reveal people are unlikely to do even when they dislike their current bank.

The former O&M team created a print ad titled "Change your bank", which contained the simple line "If you must throw your money away, give it to a charity not your bank".

The majority of the judges, including Peter Souter, creative director of BBDO Worldwide, and Dianne Thompson, chief executive of Camelot, favoured the campaign for conveying a positive message.

Creatives have until June 25 to respond to the next brief, which involves more switching. This time they need to convince people who are happy with the five analogue terrestrial television channels to upgrade to a digital TV service ahead of government plans to switch off analogue TV signals. Entry is via the OpenAd website.

For this brief, the judges will be joined by Ford Ennals, the chief executive of Switchco, the organisation set up to coordinate the digital TV switchover.

OpenAd.net launched in March and allows advertisers to post briefs to attract responses from creatives, and creatives to post ideas that advertisers can buy.

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