Do you remember these guys? FreeCreditScore.com? Some of their commercials had a very unique niche in the advertisement realm.
Their series of 30 second ads owned by Experian, first aired on T.V in late 2007. The majority, if not all of their advertisements, involved a trio band whose music created catchy verses and choruses regarding credit score. This musical approach which lyrics included "F.R.E.E that spells free, credit report.com baby" caught the attention of many viewers whether we liked it or not. In addition, the amount of attention and feedback the ads received was quite impressive, considering they didn't use an ethos approach and had a A-list celebrity sell their services.
Their persuasive techniques were easily identified by their choice to implement music, lyrics and improv humor rather than simple dialogue into their ads. The mixture of humor and emotion appeal, I definitely think incorporated story telling. For example, one of the ads themes used the lead vocalist to explain his experience of buying a car, it turns out he had a bad credit score and all he could get a loan for was a bicycle. (here's the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxq5omA6n04)
The series of ads using television as their medium is proven to be effective because unlike billboards or magazine prints, the music can actually be heard and tell the whole story of some of these hypothetical situations regarding credit scores.
The style of ad is not new nor different, however, prior to FreeCreditScore.com there really wasn't any other commercials that involved humor and music into poor situations like having a bad credit score. Most other ads involving financials services were serious and pensive.
The targeted audiences for their ads is a wide age category (18-60) of all ethnicities, particularly individuals (or married couples) that are looking for loans and or building their credit score. As a college student, of course my credit score is important and attracting my attention by catchy melodic references is a good way to keep a reminder on my fico score.
Despite a broad audience, the freecreditscore.com commercials do somewhat hold a stereotype. Since the trio band are men in their 20's, many of the hypothetical scenarios revolve around "young adult" issues. For example, one of the ads involves the lead singer meeting his girlfriend who ends up having a lousy credit score, which then, makes them move into her dad's basement...Doesn't really sound like a 40 or 50 year problem.
The strengths of the advertisements would definitely be the music incorporated into the commercials, however, a weakness I would say would be that some of the singing and lyrics come off as "corny." I could see an elder individual not be interested or compelled by their marketing strategy because..well..they don't like that "genre" of music.
Nonetheless, the overall approach is very memorable because as I said earlier, unlike billboards and magazines, a comprehensive message driven by musical satire is uncharacteristic in the advertisement world. Sure, there are things like jingles but when dealing with serious financial concerns, how many other ads are animating their services? Maybe one? J.G Wentworth? "It's my money and I need it now!!"
I guess what I am trying to say is that freecreditscore.com's approach is friendly, fun and entertaining, which in doing so, makes them effective.
After researching freecreditscore.com's Twitter, I found them to be very active on their social platforms. Many of their tweets are consistent and involve rhetorical questions such as, "Are you thinking about getting your first car?" or "Always wanted your dream house?"
As a Twitter fein, this approach really isn't effective because like many blue bird users, seeing stuff like "Did you know there are different kinds of interest rates?" sounds a lot like spam. And I'm not so sure social media is the best way to encourage someone to check their credit score, after all, I'm too busy shopping online and being the best possible consumer I can be.
ConsumerAffairs.com is site that reviews products and services mostly through forums or threads. After reading through a couple post, I found a lot of people to be disappointed with freecreditscore.com's services. One user said. "Do not use this site, I paid a dollar to view my credit score and after a week I was billed $21.85 which they refused to reimburse."
.......Sounds like the opposite of free?
After reading through some more reviews, I came to the realization that the company had an average of 1/2 stars out of 5 stars. Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily recommend their service to my friends.
In conclusion, I learned that having a good marketing approach like freecreditscore.com can entice people to check out their services BUT it doesn't always mean that the approach matches the services. I was just shocked to read that everybody who went to their website ended up at least paying some type of payment to view their credit score.
I don't understand how a friendly ad that specifically emphasizes "FREE" could charge people right off the bat? What ever happen to lyrics "F.R.E.E that spells free, credit report.com baby?"
But in the end, I guess it's true what they say, "Nothing in life is ever free."
Links to article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxq5omA6n04
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/debt/freecreditscore.html
https://twitter.com/freecreditscore
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