At MAD//Fest, a panel featuring Richard Warren, Director, Brand, Marketing & Corporate Affairs at Nationwide, and Lynne Deason, Head of Creative Excellence at Kantar, offered a look behind the scenes of Nationwide’s reinvention of its brand and marketing. The session, *Don’t be a anker, explored how a historically “lovely, lovely” building society became a disruptive force in one of the most risk-averse sectors of all: financial services.
Financial advertising, as Deason noted, has long been near the bottom of public perception when it comes to creative excellence. “People find it boring, confusing, and undifferentiated,” she explained. “It struggles to earn attention, doesn’t make brands feel different, and lacks emotional connection.”
A new purpose for a new era
In early 2023, Nationwide made a decisive shift. “We stopped talking about ourselves as a building society,” said Warren, “because no one under 50 really knows what that means. Instead, we wanted to position ourselves as a genuine alternative to the Big Four banks.”
That pivot came to life through a new purpose: Banking, but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society. The key word, Warren stressed, is “but”. “We’re in the banking sector, but because we’re a mutual, we don’t have to return profits to shareholders. That gives us a different lens on everything we do.”
Nationwide aligned its internal culture, employee behaviours, and customer experience around this mission. “We put the customer lens on everything, and we made being straight-talking part of the DNA,” said Warren.
Rebranding with bravery
Perhaps the most visible change came with Nationwide’s full rebrand in October 2023. “We hadn’t touched the brand since the 1970s,” Warren said. “It looked old-fashioned. But we were terrified.” The fear, he explained, stemmed from marketing orthodoxy, particularly Byron Sharp’s cautionary tales of brands like Tropicana that lost salience after drastic visual changes.
Yet, the rebrand was a success he said. Branches and cards were transformed overnight, with no drop in attribution or recognition. “We didn’t have the Byron Sharp problem,” Warren said. “People still knew it was us. And now, we’re an example that proves the theory wrong.”
Making marketing magnetic
At the centre of the accompanying ad campaign was a fictional CEO of a fictional bank, a character Warren admitted “resembled a Roman emperor” and who served as a critique of profit-hungry banking culture.
“Two-thirds of commercial success comes from salience,” Warren explained. “Nationwide didn’t have a consideration problem, but it had a salience problem, especially with under-50s.”
But younger audiences weren’t seeing the work, not because it wasn’t effective, but because of media fragmentation. “The problem was visibility,” said Warren. “The ads pre-tested brilliantly with everyone, but under-40s just didn’t see them.” The solution? More YouTube, more BVOD, social media, influencers, London Underground takeovers, and the “NationFried” campaign that saw them take over a fried chicken shop during Freshers’ Week.
“We took 30% of the student market last year,” Warren revealed. “For a brand that had traditionally appealed to over-50s savers, that was a massive pivot.”
Magnetism as the new marketing metric
Lynne Deason offered a framework to understand Nationwide’s success, what she dubbed “brand magnetism”. “Magnetic brands grow,” she said, “because they are meaningful, different and salient.”
She proposed a new C-suite title for marketers: Chief Magnetism Officer. “It’s about more than being entertaining. Magnetism is about attraction, charm, charisma and persuasion,” she said. “If your brand didn’t exist, what would people miss?”
Lessons in leadership
Warren acknowledged the challenges of this creative reinvention. “It’s a lot more work,” he said, citing the need to work with many more agencies, from social to PR to influencer marketing. But it’s paying off. “We’re now making progress with younger audiences and families, who are key to our future growth.”
