TDA picks up Girobank rebranding business

Alliance & Leicester has hired direct marketing agency TDA to create a multi-million pound rebranding campaign for its Girobank business.

TDA’s brief is also to develop a campaign that will update the image of the banking network, which is 35 years old.

Girobank head of marketing Claire Bulman, who joined the company earlier this year from Asda (MW May 29), appointed TDA. The agency will develop through-the-line activity aimed at both attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Bulman worked with TDA when she was head of food retailer Iceland’s home-shopping and delivery service in the late Nineties.

Initial work will focus on the rebranding of Girobank as part of Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank. The decision to rebrand was announced in July. All media buying will be handled by MediaVest Manchester, which picked up the Alliance & Leicester account last year (MW September 26, 2002).

Bulman says that the rebranding will bring Alliance & Leicester’s entire commercial banking business under one brand, including asset finance brand Sovereign Finance which was recently brought under the Alliance & Leicester brand.

Alliance & Leicester bought Girobank from the Government in 1990 and aims to freshen up its downmarket image. The name change will in part seek to clarify that the bank is no longer owned by the Post Office.