CIBC shows how it can mitigate being ‘baby poor’

CIBC has introduced yet another new expression to the marketing lexicon: “Baby poor.” According to a new TV spot from Juniper Park\TBWA, it’s characterized by having to forego things like restaurant reservations and vacations to be able to afford baby essentials.

It is the seventh spot in the bank’s one-year-old “Ambitions Made Real” brand platform, which has previously featured consumer segments including entrepreneurs, hobbyists and first-time homeowners to demonstrate how CIBC can help make its customers’ ambitions come true.

Debuting on TV, with digital, social and digital radio to follow, the campaign is promoting the bank’s Smart Advice hub. The 30-second spot shows a couple preparing for the birth of their first child and realizing they’re going to have to make sacrifices to make way for the new addition to their family.

(As any parent can attest, the baby stage is actually the least of this couple’s financial worries: Our family was once 10 years of organized sports poor; now we’re university poor.)

The spot then shows the couple using a budgeting calculator they found on the Smart Advice hub to successfully balance the new baby’s needs with their own. They are shown in the glow of the CIBC’s diamond-shaped logo, a mainstay of the brand’s new advertising that represents a portal to where its customers’ dreams come true.

“With this spot, CIBC is recognizing that while life events often mean having to reassess your finances, our clients can rely on Smart Advice to help them prepare and navigate their finances today as well as their finances in the future with confidence,” said Esther Benzie, CIBC’s vice-president, brand and advertising, in a release.

Juniper Park\TBWA group creative director Paul Little said that banks tend to shy away from the real-life challenges faced by customers in their marketing, but the new platform continues to portray CIBC as “more human” and “more relatable,” showing that life is complicated, requiring decisions that help them achieve balance.

Chris Powell