National Australia Bank have worked with SEE to promote their flexible advisory approach in a TV spot featuring a discus player training in a ballet school. The campaign is linked with the deployment of more banking advisors into branches.
“And one, two and three and four and one, two and three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” These are the instructions given by a ballet coach for a group session. The coach sees one would-be dancer who’s clearly a fish out of water. He’s wearing tights but on his feet he’s wearing athletic shoes. She stops the class to provide him with individual coaching, helping him spin with flair. “Sometimes to get what you want you need some words of experience. Which is where we come in.”
As the dancer whirls around and around the scene morphs to a floodlit stadium in which he is throwing his discus in Australian colours. The ballet coach sits in the stadium taking pleasure in his performance before walking down the stairs. “So what is it you want?”
National Australia Bank is a “proud partner” of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. What we’re not told on the ad is that National Australia Bank is a lead sponsor of The Australia Ballet, which includes sponsorship of the national education programme promoting ballet through classes and workshops across metropolitan and regional Australia.
Credits
SEE creative director John Douglas describes the TV spot as a way of helping National Australia Bank position themselves in the public mind as the ones who help companies and individuals learn new skills to go where they want. “It’s a classic fish out of water scenario”, Douglas says, “picking up the feel from stories like My Favorite Martian.”
The spot was directed by Greg Willmott via Here Films with producer Giovanni Lovisetto.
The discus thrower is Scott Martin. The ballet teacher is played by Irina Kuzminsky, who in real life is a music teacher.
UPDATE
Scott won a gold medal in discus at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, March 23. See the article in The Australian on March 25.
Hello Duncan, I love your blog. Please keep up the great work you do analysing and posting reviews of TV advertisements.
What a great result for NAB with this advertisment, with Scott Martin pirouetting to a Commonwealth Games gold medal. I now hope that the ballet teacher reaps an award as well.
Just wanted to say Mr. Duncan, that you do a fantastic job analysing the advertisments, and without sites like this one, it would make my life as an advertising student more difficult. Thank you
just wandering wether you know were i can get the lyriccs for the tv add commercial NAB(national australia bank)give me that give me that thing? there the main lyrics? much thanks