Global comedy star Jerry Seinfeld is not satisfied with the Greater Building Society’s impressive 95% customer satisfaction rating. In the first of a new series of commercials, unveiled today, Seinfeld undertakes to track down the missing five percent of customers and win them over.
Releasing new pictures from the shoot, head of marketing John Dwyer says that despite the Greater’s customer satisfaction rating being 20% higher than the average rating for banks, Seinfeld is on a mission to see what he can do to assist those people who are not completely satisfied.
Mr Dwyer says the commercials are classic Seinfeld comedy, designed to draw attention to the fact that there are alternatives to the major banks offering better rates, low fees and superior service. The launch commercial sees Seinfeld and Greater management in a video call which sets up the series.
He says that in the commercials to follow over the next 12 months, Seinfeld goes to great comedic lengths to talk to “everyday” Australians. A suit-clad Seinfeld will undertake a range of activities including dirt biking and jet-skiing to win the customers over.
“To the credit of our fantastic staff, Greater Building Society has an independently determined customer satisfaction rating of 95%, a rate unheard of among the banks,” Mr Dwyer says.
“We are having some fun while making the serious point that offering excellent service is something the Greater prides itself on and does much better than the major banks,” he says.
Seinfeld helped the Greater to develop the concept and to write the scripts. This second series of commercials is part of the multi-year deal negotiated with Seinfeld in 2009. Mr Dwyer says that Seinfeld again went above and beyond for the Greater, during the campaign development and during the shoot, where he worked from 8am to near midnight on both days.
“Jerry put a lot of his creative talent into this campaign and I have heard that he thinks these are his best commercials yet.”
Seinfeld shot the commercials in a New York studio last month using green screen. Mr Dwyer says Seinfeld did his own stunts including being winched five metres in the air for one scene. The testimonials from real customers, to be used in upcoming commercials, were shot in Newcastle.
The launch commercial will air on TV screens and on radio stations in regional NSW, on the Gold Coast and in Townsville from this Sunday.
The Greater consistently scores a customer satisfaction rating of around 95% in independent, annual surveys conducted by The Financial Research Group. Research by Roy Morgan (August 2010) shows the major banks have an average satisfaction rating of 74.3%.
The Greater Building Society is one of Australia’s largest building societies and operates across regional NSW, south-east Queensland and in Townsville. One of Australia’s Top 200 private companies (BRW 2010), the Greater was this month named Building Society of the Year both in the AFR Smart Investor Blue Ribbon Awards and in the 2010 Mozo People’s Choice Awards.
