MESH Experience Blog

UK Retail Banking Corona Insights Week End 2 Oct 2020

Written by Mark Thompson | 10/4/20 7:42 PM

We aim to help marketers offer the best customer experience they can and continue to build their brand equity during this time of crisis.  Key trends this week: Halifax and Lloyds dominating the advertising space.

Our UK Retail Banking Dashboard provides a weekly snapshot of trends that you can interrogate. We invite you to click on the link below and take a look around the data. The link will give you direct access to the dashboard, no log-ins are required but please use Google Chrome and access via a laptop.  One feature to highlight is the ability to click on data points to view the underlying comments for the experiences, so if response to advertising is positive, you can click to see what people are saying about it.

Halifax and Lloyds dominating the advertising space

Despite a slight increase in COVID-19 concern (now 74% very or fairly concerned), people still feel supported by banks. However, negative news could start to undermine this. Last week we saw HSBC spike in earned news (10% Earned Reach) with negativity relating to criminal transactions and fraud. This week, that news has gone away but TSB has taken over (8% Earned Reach), with negativity surrounding job losses and branch closures. However, this negative sentiment is different to the anger shown for HSBC. People are sad about people losing their jobs and worried about the impact on the high street. They see it as highly related to COVOD-19.   “I read that TSB is to close 164 of its branches and cut 960 jobs. Sad that so many branches will close and sadly so many will lose their jobs and that the coronavirus has speeded these closures along.” TSB | Online | Very Negative | Slightly less likely to choose | Fairly Irrelevant

 

From an advertising perspective, Halifax (16% reach) and Lloyds (13% reach) continue to dominate the market. Barclays sees an increase in reach this week (from 2% last week to 9% this week), but compared to its previous level, is still underachieving. Nationwide also sees an increase in reach (to 9%), with its mortgage campaign being picked up. However, both Lloyds and Halifax outperform Barclays and Nationwide for engagement of advertising over the past few weeks. Lloyds is reassuring, “It was an advert with the iconic Lloyds black horse running and the baby horse and just generally family vibe and being there. Made me feel like they’re a supportive bank and that they’re there for their customers.” Lloyds | TV | Very Positive | Slightly more likely to choose | Very Relevant

 

In summary

  • Sadness at the news of branch closures and job losses for TSB
  • Barclays and Nationwide increase advertising reach, but Lloyds and Halifax dominate
  • Reassurance of Lloyds campaign is working well

 

Contributor:
Mark Thompson, Experience Director & Kaat Defreyne, Senior Experience Executive