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The challenge for most financial brands is market differentiation.

Whatever aspect of financial services you're marketing - planning, banking, loans, credit cards, investment, pensions - a pound is still a pound.

You're going to lend them a pound, or they're going to invest one with you. So what makes your pound different from that of others? Well, not much actually.

Most financial products and services are commoditised - multiple providers have pretty much the same offering. Which is a shame because these are the very brands that are gagging for a creative makeover.

But these providers are often wary of damaging established traditional brands. And they have a point. So the challenge for the agency is how to sensibly balance the desire for creativity, add value to the brand and satisfy the concerns of the client.

Assess the creative appetite

The finance industry is notoriously conservative and risk-averse, so ask the client what they want. Just because the client has approved dry work in the past doesn't mean they aren't prepared to be challenged in some sectors. This will be achieved in the briefing and planning stages and can be helped along by ensuring the creatives have detailed audience profiles to work with.

Creative experimentation should be allowed in the early stages of development.

The client is often excluded from this process and is only presented with the final agency recommendation(s). But, particularly where the agency is trying to move the client into a more creative space, keeping them involved in the evolution is critical for their input.

Add creative value

Ironically, the most creative value is likely to be derived outside of the creative department. As with many other sectors, the value of the creative execution will be felt in the results that the campaign generates - measurement is crucial. The role of the creative here is to ensure that concepts are developed with measurement built in from the ground up. This goes against the grain for most creatives. But the discipline of asking the question, 'How do we measure it?' while the concept is still on the drawing board pays dividends in the financial sector, where numbers are all-important and the broad 'raising brand awareness' objective is painfully unfamiliar.

There is no standard way to measure a bespoke creative campaign; the same technique couldn't be administered to a DM campaign and a brand strategy improvement campaign. But no matter what size the company, emphasis should lie with the measurement, a successful campaign demonstrates the importance of good creative work, offers measurable return on the marketing investment and secures ongoing or increased investment in the creative marketing process.

The small print

The financial industry has long been criticised for its inability to pay Paul without robbing Peter. As WC Fields famously noted - "What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away." The terms and conditions component of any financial campaign is the creative equivalent of cold baked beans straight from the tin.

Some industry bodies are starting to insist that there is no small print within a financial marketing offer. This doesn't mean we've been liberated from the small print - it means that all the detail has to be contained within the body of the offer.

But, with a little dedication and practice, the terms can be easily integrated into the wider body copy.

Creatively though, it's another challenge almost unique to the financial industry.

- Scot McKee is managing director at Birddog

MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN: VENTURE FINANCE

Working in a global financial network, Venture Finance enables businesses to maximise cashflow, expand operations, make acquisitions or merge and invest.

Venture operates in a highly competitive industry that can also be dull when it comes to creative execution. Birddog was briefed to challenge Venture's historical communications approach and encourage the brand to differentiate itself from its grey counterparts.

By gaining an in-depth understanding of both internal and external audience perceptions, the creative process identified and extended core messages - in this case, that Venture understood the financial issues associated with running a successful company.

Differentiation was achieved by using high-impact images and copy based around a single creative concept - 'Not all companies are the same'. The creative campaign wasn't about a finance company, it was about 'you'.

The campaign was integrated across all communications media - online and offline. Measurement was achieved against multiple client objectives and delivered a year-on-year increase in sales leads generated through the www.venturefinance.co.uk website.

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