One year ago, almost to the day, all eyes in South Africa, and indeed in much of the rest of the planet, were focused intently on the impressive new FNB stadium in Gauteng as it hosted the celebrations signalling the start of the greatest international sporting event in the world.

This year sees a key roleplayer in that successful event, and the organisation that gave the stadium its name, returning to the venue and, once again, bringing together all South Africans in a spirit of unity and goodwill – this time through an inspiring television advertisement that has already garnered widespread critical acclaim since it was first aired on Freedom Day.

The FNB ‘Anthem’ television advert caps a six-month period of frenetic brand revitalisation and repositioning by South Africa’s oldest banking group, which began with the appointment of chief marketing officer, Bernice Samuels. Since taking up the position in December 2010, Samuels and her marketing team have focused intently on developing a strategy by which to take the well established and already firmly entrenched FNB brand promise of 'How can we help you?' to a new level of awareness and attractiveness within the South African banking consumer market.

“When you are working with a brand and brand promise that has a 10-year record of success in positioning FNB as a caring and value-adding organisation,” explains Samuels, “the real challenge is finding ways to enhance that brand by building on the equity it already possesses without running the risk of creating confusion or uncertainty amongst is existing and prospective supporters.”

To achieve this Samuels and her team took a two pronged approach to the brand reinvigoration exercise, incorporating a thorough reappraisal of both the value implied by the brand promise and the underlying values it represents and then strengthening these attributes at a rational and emotional level.

“Since it was launched over a decade ago, the FNB ‘How can we help you?’ brand promise has served as an effective brand differentiator for the bank, while the sun and tree logo have been the bedrock of that brand for generations of banking customers,” says Samuels, “but the dynamic banking environment of the past few years, combined with the lingering after-effects of the global financial crisis, meant that the time was right for us to move our brand forward to meet the changing needs of our clients.”

From the outset, it was recognised that the concept of ‘help’ lay at the heart of the FNB brand and the promise that brand implied for its clients – particularly after the hard time they have recently endured.

But while the process of revitalising the brand centred on strategically reinvigorating the power of the ‘help’ promise, Samuels also recognised that, in order to be effective, the entire brand building exercise had to be a fully integrated one, and include a refreshing of the bank’s overall corporate identity, a reinforcement of the brand tag-line, and a fresh marketing and advertising thrust to act as a launch pad to take the ‘new look’ FNB to the forefront of the South African banking mindset.

As an iconic and instantly recognisable brand, FNB was already entrenched as an integral part of South African culture. This presented the bank with a unique opportunity to focus on enhancing the level of awareness it held in the minds of consumers by enhancing what Samuels calls the ‘mental availability’ of the brand.
“Human beings are driven by emotions, so it stands to reason that any successful brand needs to keep on connecting with its customers on an emotional level,” she explains, “which is what we set out to achieve by subtly repositioning FNB’s corporate and brand identity.”

The focus of this process was, first and foremost, to deepen the sense of relationship that the South African banking customers experience with FNB. At a strategic level, this was achieved through closer integration of the various FNB businesses, products, and communications methods so that no matter which area of FNB a customer dealt with, their positive perception of the greater FNB brand would be enhanced.

On a more practical level, the corporate identity overhaul saw subtle, yet significant updates and enhancements to the distinctive branding elements – from the instantly recognizable FNB turquoise and amber, to the tree silhouette in the logo. Even the marketing language, photographic guidelines and corporate typefaces have enjoyed a makeover to ensure they support the more open, direct and, naturally, helpful FNB brand identity.

“By pulling together and updating FNB’s various corporate identity elements, we believe we have succeeded in creating a platform by which to cement our one-brand communication approach,” Samuels explains, “and through the simple process of integrating the ‘How can we help you?’ pay-off line as a definite element within our logo design, we have demonstrated our commitment to delivering on our promise to always provide our customers with whatever help they may require.”

And this same commitment to helpfulness, as well as a recognition of what can be achieved when people are willing to help one another, is the central premise on which the latest FNB television advertisement is built.

Entitled simply ‘Anthem’, the commercial shows a young girl singing the South African National Anthem to a packed FNB stadium. When she falters near the end of the rendition, the 80 000 fellow South Africans join in and help her finish the song on a truly inspirational note.

Simple in its execution, but extremely powerful in its message, according to Samuels, the advert has the kind of goose-bump generating quality that makes it a very effective vehicle through which to impart FNB’s message that ‘where there’s help, there’s a way’ – a natural extension of their ‘How can we help you?’ brand promise.

“By reinforcing the unity and camaraderie all South Africans, combined with the patriotic symbolism of the stadium and the National Anthem, this advert does far more than just promote FNB as a truly helpful bank,” Samuels concludes, “it succeeds in renewing the sense of national pride that permeated our country a year ago, and reviving our proudly South African consciousness.”