- Product/Brand - Nationwide Building Society
- Spot - On Your Side For Generations
- Music Title - I’ll Keep You Safe
- Composer - O'Neal
- Publisher - Chester Music (Music Sales)
- Artist - Sleeping At last
- Music Supervisor - Resilient Music, Cecilia
- Ad Agency - N/A
- Film Company - Aspect Film & Video
- Film Director - Adam Etheridge
- Air Date - 28/5/15
Unlike many of its competitors in the financial sector the Nationwide has traditionally focused on one TV ad a year. So every second on screen must be worth its weight in gold.
The building society’s current campaign On Your Side For Generations is no exception.
It tells the touching story of a scarf given to a Scottish fisherman by his young son and boasts a soundtrack by US singer/songwriter Ryan O’Neal (working under the name of Sleeping At Last) which is guaranteed to bring a lump to the throat of even the most-hardbitten adbreak aficionado.
Nationwide was in the process of changing its creative agency at the end of 2014 when this spot was still at the planning stage.
Consequently the in-house marketing team managing the project were especially reliant on the input from independent clearance expert Richard Kirstein at Resilient Music and creative music supervisor Susan Stone at Cecilia.
“They exceeded our expectations by working together seamlessly throughout,” says Nationwide Assistant Manager Brand Marketing Gemma Elson.
Nationwide COO, Marketing Stephen Leonard adds: “When we heard I’ll Keep You Safe as part of the initial search, it was clear to see why Cecilia thought it would be a great fit. The positive reaction to it through social media since the campaign launch has proven it was right for us.”
Resilient’s Kirstein is also quick to extend credit to Robyn Kennedy in the sync team at publisher Music Sales (led by John Boughtwood) for both pitching the song and striking a commercially sensible deal which is clearly paying dividends for all concerned.
