BO2 digital bank - is this a joke?

Now that every bank is launching its own digital variant, BO2 by Byblos Bank - one of the alpha banks that, along with others, shot itself in the foot by being too opaque with its customers - is trying to find its footing in the market. After launching it in 2025 (here), now comes the tacticals. Well, the tactical ads are supposed to be a joke (not sure this is a pun or what). "We don't play hard to get". "we don't make you pay on the first date", well, yes, lovely, now can we have our money back from the frozen accounts since 2019? Are people clamoring to get their new digital accounts knowing who the parent-company of the digital account is? Not really. So twists and turns and pseudo-jokes are not exactly the answer to that one. Banks, digital or not, have a long way to go.

Leap, another digital bank from a bank that defrauded you

Neo from Bank Audi, BO2 from Byblos Bank, DIGI by Bank of Beirut, Wink Pay by Credit Libanais. And now leap by SGBL.  Sounds familiar? Sounds like someone trying to get in from the window when they slammed the door shut in your face? Banks who defrauded you are now with a vengeance on the "digital bank" front. Well, sure, with the accounts capped at not-so-high figures and the withdrawal much less than the one in the traditional bank, and with them not truly advertising who the mother bank is, I understand the appeal. Mind you, the original money is still stuck in our traditional accounts. To be honest though "leap into moments" is lame. Very.

BO2, the new digtal bank... by Byblos?

Well, banks are not exactly liked or wanted these days in Lebanon. So instead of advertising directly, they are resorting to well... backdoor advertising. Take BO2 the new digital bank... by none other than... Byblos Bank! Now I am not a techie expert but this seems like a digital wallet somehow. Still, interestingly, "by Byblos Bank" is so small on the ad as it is was an afterthought. Because, again, people are still reeling from rage at how banks tricked people and subscribed them into this immense Ponzi scheme. And people wonder why Lebanon is now this giant cash economy!

Lock, stock images, and two smoking barrels

Image credit: Mahmoud Ghazayel

Ah stock images. Again!

I sometimes wonder when, all of us armed with cell phones with incredibly efficient cameras, all agencies STILL do the same blunder. The image above is courtesy of Mahmoud Ghazayel. Cyberia and Almaza, both using the same stock imagery.

Let me tell you this story, I was once supervising a group of graduate students on their final year. Their brief was to do a campaign for Bank of Beirut. About 3 sessions later they all came to me with the same issue, they could not find good images online of the bank to use in their projects. Now, if you have not seen me going berserk you have truly missed something. And indeed, they were treated to a one sided shouting match. Why? Right opposite the gate of the university we had a beautiful Bank Of Beirut branch. All they had to do was go down there, politely ask to photograph and then come back and chose whatever images they wanted to use.

Did any student think about that? No. Why? Stock images of course. If there was no stock images or readily downloadable images from the net, they'd immediately panic. That all of them were armed with sophisticated cell phones would never occur to them. But at least the Cyberia/Almaza blunder is not as horrible as the Byblos Bank/Condomi mishap whereby the same image was used by both brands, in the same magazine, a few pages apart.

Would a Lebanese trust a bank again?

Lately, a Lebanese banker said that if we combine what is left in the reserves of the Central Bank (currently 16 Billion Dollars), to what the Lebanese are hoarding in their houses as cash (estimated anywhere between 5 to 10 Billion Dollars), to what is left stuck in the Lebanese banking system (commonly known as Lollar, as coined by Dan Azzi), all this can be added together to relaunch the Lebanese economy.

On paper the idea makes much sense. In the end - what are banks for? Remember the ads with house loans, car loans, personal loans, business loans, heck, even plastic surgery loans, and all other loans? Those were supposed to sustain and launch enterprises, except of course for the bit when all this created a rentier economy based on interest rates, pseudo-Ponzi schemes, and the list continues (for details just check the daily life of an average Lebanese living in the age of hyper-inflation and super devaluation).

Now the bit where the banker went wrong is that - no person in his right mind would trust a bank in Lebanon for a long, long time. Granted, people have short memories, but really. Banks, as institutions have soiled their brands, their reason of existence, have breached the trust of their clients, and all in all have been either idiotic with people's money, or demonic in terms of self-enrichment for their management and top clients.

So basically, whereas the banker means well (I think, though not sure considering the antecedents), that man is not going to touch the money I managed to take out of the bank at a loss and which I am keeping at home. Not just me, I previously talked about how all Lebanese are doing this. In the end, it is this money that constitutes some sort of an insurance against - literally - poverty as the middle class is eroding faster than me writing this post.

Long, long time ago, Byblos Bank had an ad that went with a selling line "a bank for life"... But in English the saying goes, "he cheated on me once, shame on him. He cheated on me twice, shame on me", in my lexicon, banks have cheated us once. I do not want the experience repeated.

 

Zaatar w Zeit goes exploring (where others preceded it).

Zaatar w Zeit has a gorgeous new ad.

Imagine this: A bunch of youth go and become adventurers in Lebanon and discover its beauty (and forget that this is the exact same scenario Byblos Bank used, as well as Almaza and countless other brands probably using the same VW Camper van). 

OK, Zaatar w Zeit does play for its audience, uppity well-to-do Gen Z boys and girls shielded from the current financial crisis by their parents and who somehow think that a Manoushe at this price is the norm (it is not). But to be fair to Zaatar w Zeit, they know their audience, they know what they like and how they behave, heck, they even included a guitar campfire night (hello Crepaway!) and a dog for a good measure (you know the kind that offers "fresh" Dollars if it is ever gone astray).

Just to be clear, the ad targets exactly who it wants to target, it is well shot, beautiful, and emotionally resonates with the people it wants to resonate with. Has it been already done elsewhere? Yes. Is it full of cliches? It is. Will it matter? Well, some youth are already planning that campfire with some uber expensive juice bottles.

See the full ad here.