Mother kicks off pounds 10m campaign for Marbles

Marbles, the new internet division of HFC Bank, launches this week

with a pounds 10 million television and press campaign by Mother.

The agency is positioning Marbles as the UK’s first mass-market,

net-friendly credit card, using the endline, ’now you can pay with

Marbles’.

The new HFC venture, which is backed by Freeserve, makes a ’safe

shopping’ promise for online purchases and offers instant net access to

account details.

Mark Robinson, the group marketing director of HFC Bank, said: ’We

wanted a brand that would inject personality into personal finance and

be something people could relate to. It provides all the benefits a

customer would expect plus more.’

The television campaign launches with two 40-second executions, which

both feature a voiceover by Honor Blackman.

In ’words’, a series of terms such as ’e-commerce’ and ’online

transactions’ are contrasted with more familiar, homely words like ’loo

roll’ and ’cheddar’.

’Underpants’ seeks to reassure consumers in a similar way. Set against

pictures of people going about their jobs wearing only underpants,

Blackman’s voiceover purrs: ’What we buy won’t change, just the way we

buy them.

Underpants will always be in demand.’ She adds: ’Safe for humans to use

online and on the high street.’

The ads, created by Mother, were directed by Jeffrey Plansker at

Propaganda.

Media buying is through Motive and a direct marketing campaign is by

CMB.

Stef Calcraft, a founding partner of Mother, said: ’Most people see

financial institutions as nothing more than a necessary evil. Marbles is

a cute brand and we hope we’ve captured some of this in the

advertising.’