John Ayling wins 1m Icelandic savings brand

John Ayling & Associates has been appointed to handle the media planning and buying for the 1m launch of online savings account Icesave.co.uk.

John Ayling & Associates has been appointed to handle the media planning and buying for the 1m launch of online savings account Icesave.co.uk.

The Icelandic brand is looking to make waves in the UK savings market, launching with a market-leading rate of 5.2%.

The account guarantees to beat the Bank of England base rate by 0.25% until October 1, 2009. However, customers must have at least 250 in savings to get the rate, otherwise the interest rate reduces to 0.5%.

Landsbanki, one of Iceland’s largest financial institutions, says it plans to launch a suite of savings products, with the IceSave online savings account as its first offering.

Advertising launches later this week across the financial press, online and through a promotion with radio station Classic FM. Online media buying is handled by Equimedia, with creative work through Identica.

Landsbanki was established in Iceland in 1886 and is the country’s oldest full-service bank. The introduction of Icesave is part of its expansion into the UK market, which Landsbanki has defined as its most important market outside Iceland.

It has been building up its operations in Britain: it owns Heritable Bank and Teather & Greenwood, the City stockbroker.

Landsbanki will be hoping to emulate the success of Dutch financial services company ING, which launched a savings product in the UK, ING Direct, in May 2003 and now has more than 1 million customers. ING Direct this week branched into mortgages, having launched a second product – home insurance – earlier this year.