Who: Interac, with Zulu Alpha Kilo for strategy and creative, The French Shop for French-language creative, Animals TV for production (Ric Cantor directing), and Media Experts for media.
What: “We Geek Out,” a new brand campaign showing how Interac helps simplify the actually quite-complicated process of payment processing—a process that we’re told uses a combination of near field communication technology, a securely tokenized digital wallet, etc.—enabling Canadians to enjoy their life.
When & Where: The campaign is in market now, running through June 9 across TV, online video, social, display and a creator program. This campaign also marks the introduction of a new sonic logo for the brand, developed by Sixieme Son.
Why: Canadians use Interac products an average of 18 million times per day, and there were 5.9 billion Interac debit transactions last year alone. But users don’t necessarily understand the technology that powers the company and its products.
According to a release, the goal is to reintroduce Interac as “the digital authentication and payments technology company” behind technologies including Interac debit, Interac e-transfer, and a suite of identity verification products.
“At Interac, our teams are proud of how our products can play a role in helping to simplify the lives of Canadians,” said Matt Houghton, Interac’sdirector of digital and integrated marketing. “By bringing that enthusiasm into the campaign, we’re able to reintroduce the brand in a way that underscores the importance of Interac products and explores how we are expanding beyond payments.”
How: The campaign’s anchor spot opens on a server presenting two women with their cheque at the end of a restaurant meal, and enquiring how they’ll be paying. That innocuous question leads one of the women to answer that she’ll be paying by Interac, except she does so by explaining in intricate detail the process behind tap payment, as the bemused server looks on. “She works at Interac,” her friend explains. “She means debit.”
Future executions will feature the Interac employee explaining the technology behind splitting the bill using Interac e-transfer, and extending parking in an app with Interac debit. The idea fuelling the spot is also being brought to life though a hidden camera stunt, in which an actor visits various retailers and uses technical jargon to explain how he’ll be paying. Those ads will be featured on TikTok and Instagram Reels.
And we quote: “Simple ideas are always the best ideas, and we were inspired by how Interac products help simplify transactional moments, contrasted against the technology required to make that happen. This allowed us to take a new approach to how we speak about the brand proposition: Interac geeks out so you don’t have to.”— Wain Choi, executive creative director, Zulu Alpha Kilo
