ASB Bank recruits UK thespian Brian Blessed for launch of 'Succeed On' campaign via Saatchi's

Like Brian. Like flipping the quiet achiever insight - even if it was shoehorned to fit the talents rambunctious demeanour. Shot well - creative must of loved having the chopper. Noticeable, memorable. It's not a bad ad.

But it's not right for ASB

The old 'Use a foreigner to hold a mirror up for us and show us what a terrific nation of understated, can do characters we really are.'

And of course because this love fest is being sponsored by the ASB this will make us all feel great about that organization.

Really Saatchis? Don't you think we've moved on from this well worn strategy?

overinflated nonsense.

Is it possible to do an ad that reflects the company manifesto rather than just reading it?

Google his feet. Fascinating.

Can someone tell me what they sell ? ........

After seeing all the rubbish their competitors had put in market ASB had last mover advantage and then fell into the same trap as "We live in your world" (WTF?) ..... "Start Asking" ..... "Be good with money" .... who would have thought the BNZ work would end up the most tangible ?

than westpac ads, anz ads, bnz ads. Still kinda dumb

It makes BNZ & Westpac look amazing

"Succeed On" will confuse my Mum.

I miss Goldstein

'Insights' are killing advertising.

Overblown and wasted. How did ASB buy this nonsense.. Epic fail!!!!!

Great stuff!! Hats off to ASB having fun. Succeed On I say.

What a bunch of misery guts you all are. I like it. Nicely done.

Shut up. Its good.

Great stuff!! Hats off to ASB having fun. Succeed On I say.

Hmmm, it's a bit "shouty", kind of like the Big Save Furniture ads, but with Brian Blessed instead of the toothy bint...

Don't worry ASB, you Toucan Succeed!

...until we see the more functional ads flogging home loans, interest rates, and the general day-to-day banking stuff that the client will want to be advertising.

You've told us how good us humble Kiwis are. Tick.

What's next?

Funny. Even laughed at the line.

No. It's not.

Who directed?

"Gordon's Alive ?!"

Whoever in ASB it is that killed Goldstein really needs to be fired first, and deported! I have never seen anything else from a bank come even neally as close in terms of likability. What a total effing waste! But wait, maybe it's not too late... So Coke released Cheery and then re-released 'Classic'... Where is cherry now? Wake up and get braint o have a gay affair with Goldstein and then jump over a cliff leaving us with 'Classic' ASB is what I say.

We've only got 15 hours to save earth.

I like it.

well done scratchi, better than the junk from the other banks.

the writing is complicated so will loose a few, but 'suceed on' I say.

Good point. Let's see how they handle the 3 new home line interest rate ads per quarter.

talent good, script rubbish. HOw long must we go on about NZ, this is just a more hateable version of that vodafone nonsense ....
screw you asb, where's the progressive ad angle, the services the bank provides are bigger than this shite for sure

Shot Blade.

Boooo! You suck! Come on, isn't this type of crap exactly what Steinlager Pure was taking the piss out of. Gosh New Zealand, aren't we great - and while we're chatting, buy my shit. It's a tired formula and a boring one. Awful.

And can you believe TRAKTOR are behind this?!!

Shaggy mammalian - LOL

Ok....So we have a campaign featuring a British comedian, created and approved by a American creative director, working for a french listed company who is working for a Australian owned bank trying to communicate with New Zealanders...

Ok lets reverse this thought for the some deep insight...

Imagine a campaign featuring Barry Crump (NZ comedian), created and approved by a South African creative director working for Uk listed company who is working for a Scottish owned Bank (lets say RBS) trying to communicate with french people...

Sounds almost as stupid.

In summary this new ASB ad is so bad it is embarrassing..

Campaign Brief - where are the production credits?

"In one line... said" i agree and add ANZ to your description. Australian actor, playing an American, for an Australian Bank telling kiwis about "living in their world"

Aren't we kiwis great? I mean every ad on TV says we're hardworking, honest, friendly and helpful but we can't say it to ourselves because that would ruin the running facade of humility. So instead we get some actor from the UK to parrot it all back to us in a different accent so that we can ignore the fact that it's just a nation-wide circlejerk that's been commercialized.

Cheers, ASB.

Who stole my car? Are you moonlighting for the dark side, Josh & Jamie?

I'm so sick of the insecure let's-embrace-our-kiwiness crap that is forever rotating from one agency to the next. Get over it...it's not an insight, it's a pathetic excuse for the parochial...

Why? When are we gonna have a kiwi leading an advert?

ROFL @ nationwide circlejerk- that must be the experiential component of this campaign.

"Huh? I'm confused"

Almost as stylish ,elegant ,subtle. And crisp as 7 sharp

So Saatchi's have a creative department filled with the crème de la crème of creative, and then on one of their biggest most important campaign's all they can output is this? Go effing figure!

Took me about 7 years to tire of Goldstein. I've had enough of Brian in less than a week.

You bunch of sorry arsed puritans. Its an ad. So what? They managed to pay the bills and maybe squirrel something away to pay off Mojo's debts as well. The first strategic priority is survival.
& @Opinion - they did sack the person who killed Goldstein & went on to launch the even worse 'We're a Kiwibank too' campaign. This is the work off the woman who sacked her. A brighter future awits us all.

Love this. So easy to watch. Not sure about the Succeed On. Can't wait to see what you do next Saatchi...

I really like it. Well done all.

Pity this wasn't for the National Bank cause then someone could have yelled "FRESH HORSE". Which brings to mind the current horse meat posing as beef scandal in the EU - kind of similar to this "You're NZers and you're like you are and you're great just because you're like you are" trend in our local adland - it's pretending to be a beef insight but we all know that it's really something from the knackers yard that is one step up from dog tucker. This kind of "aren't we great" insight advertising by a bank or a telco etc is just a tad insulting when you know that they actually see their customers as sheep with wallets. So we now have horse, beef, and sheep in the mix - put it in the mincer and who'll know the difference.

So what if our ads are shit, we're trying to run an art gallery, not an agency.

C'mon guys. Lift your game. We're all stuck making these shit ideas come to life (well, not this one, they needed an expensive foreign team to pull off this tricky 'man shouts at camera' script).
You creatives used to be so good. What happened? Why are you all regurgitating the same idea over and over again?
The quality of script writing has dropped off. Ideas are thin.
We're all desperate for a good script, but all we ever do is polish turds.
Where have all the craftsman gone?

um - this is because there's been so many foreign looking ads made by foreigners that the punter needs to be told it's ok to be a new zealander - not some pommy git wandering around prague. it's coem out in research quite clearly. the problem is, the some c*nts that caused the problem are trying to fix it and they don't know how to. mate.

I bet ASB and Saatchis can't wait till this story drops off the bottom of this page.

You can bet the creatives will have this first up on their show reel for years to come and it'll be the highlight of their careers.

Tractor on the other hand.... well, I doubt it'll see the light of day let alone appear on their show reel.

If you get enough monkeys to randomly bash on a key board eventually they will come up with a script like this.

Congratulations for taking end lines beyond the comprehensible into some sort of strange twilight zone where only three people on earth actually understand what it means.

Heard of cows...of course I have.

It's high on the "mute this ad" list. After living thru Goldstein am shocked by the awfulness of this.

The choice of the anachronistic old fart in this ad seems to suggest the ASB is targeting the estates of the old and senile.