Paper costs put Barclays on TV track

Barclays Bank Consumer Lending division is retreating from costly paper insert advertising with the launch of its first national direct response TV campaign for Mercantile Credit Personal Loans.

Barclays Bank product manager John Hoyle says Barclays has been looking into media alternatives because the spiralling costs of paper are making inserts – the main element of the brand’s advertising – too expensive.

“The cost of paper has gone up quite dramatically so we took a decision last year to test off-the-page advertising in national and consumer press. That proved quite successful and so we started testing DRTV,” he says.

Inserts remain a large part of the media spend for Mercantile Credit Personal Loans, but the diversification has prompted Barclays to consolidate its ú3.2m account into The Media Shop.

The account was previously split between The Media Shop and Mediastar; they remain the bank’s overall media buyers.

Hoyle says the summer TV drive, by The Brahm Agency, will “break the mould of financial services advertising. Most financial services advertising gets you to call for more information, but we want to sell the product off the screen”, he says.