Nationwide has turned to AI to assist with its communications after two of its adverts were banned for being misleading.
The building society entered into a strategic partnership with software company Red Marker, which will aim to help enhance consumer protection, mitigate risk and ensure clear and accurate communications.
While Nationwide says Red Marker will not be involved in its TV advertising, it will help it become “more efficient” and “ensure that our customers receive clear, fair and not misleading information through our marketing promotions”.
Nationwide has also asserted that it started working with the company before the Dominic West adverts were banned earlier this month.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received more than 280 complaints about the advert – including from rival bank Santander – saying the film was misleading consumers about high street bank closures.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning
The banned advert featured Dominic West as an arrogant banker flanked by Sunil Patel as his assistant, with West responding to a suggestion about keeping banks open by saying: “We’re not Nationwide, we’re not anything like them”.
The film closes with the line “Unlike the big banks, we’re not closing our branches”.
The regulator ruled that consumers would interpret the adverts in the context of high street bank closures, adding that although Nationwide had closed fewer banks than others over a ten-year period it had still shut 20% of its estate.
Following the ban, Nationwide has launched a new edition of the ad which does not feature the contentious line.
Working with Red Marker’s AI platform will help Nationwide keep its communications clear and compliant, as the software enables ‘real-time probabilistic risk identification in marketing and web content using machine learning rules and natural language processing for businesses in heavily regulated industries’.
“We’re happy to be working with Red Marker, who will enable our teams to become more efficient and help ensure that our customers receive clear, fair and not misleading information through our marketing promotions,” said Nationwide financial promotions and advertising approvals senior manager Susan Turvey.
“For an organisation which is so focused on delivering the best possible customer service this is really important to us.”
