ING launches mortgage product with VCCP ads

ING Direct is supporting the launch of its “straightforward” mortgage product with a new advertising campaign created by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest (VCCP).

ING Direct is supporting the launch of its “straightforward” mortgage product with a new advertising campaign created by Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest (VCCP).

The ads will feature ING’s trademark “lifebelt” icon and focus on its competitive rates, simplicity and “no catches” approach that it pioneered with its savings product. The campaign will run across press, outdoor and online and will also include TV idents on Channel 4’s property programming strand, which it already sponsors.

Mortgages have become the third new sector that ING has entered since it was introduced in the UK in May 2003. Earlier this summer it unveiled a home insurance product (MW July 6).

Media planning and buying has been handled by the company’s outgoing media agency MPG. The bank moved the account into PHD last month following a competitive pitch.

The financial services company says it has tried to move away from confusing fees for mortgages, which it claims are used by rivals to boost profits. The move comes in advance of an announcement this autumn by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) following its investigation in to mortgage fees.

ING Direct chief executive Lindsay Sinclair says: “What we see in the mortgage market is exactly what we encountered when we launched our savings product three years ago. The rates people are being offered are not what they seem and mortgages come with a range of nasty surprises.”