Baby, It’s Time for a Trade
Apparently some people just don’t have a sense of humor. Like the new CEO at E-Trade (the financial services company’s seventh chief executive since 2007) who thinks it’s time to get serious when it comes to the company’s marketing. In other words, no more talking baby spots. But you can’t fire this baby. He quit.
The whole idea behind the talking baby campaign was to make online trading look easy. When the first ad premiered in 2008 during the Super Bowl, online investing wasn’t as common as it is today but E-Trade (successfully) made us think that if a baby could do it, so could we.
"It served its purpose when it first launched,” said branding expert Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of branding firm Landor Associates. "But now online trading is so common the baby has lost its mission."
And the ad agency that created the memorable spots (Grey) has lost its contract.
You knew something was up when E-Trade passed on advertising in this year’s Super Bowl. It practically owned that game.
But E-Trade couldn’t just let the baby go quietly into the good night. Not this baby.
This is the man/child who monitored his investment portfolio from his crib.
He traveled First Class on the Red Eye with his bachelor party pal, Mike.
Helped his tailor Enzo create a “stunner portfolio” on his way to retiring in Tuscany.
Whipped out a smart phone to finish a trade when his mother took away his crib tablet.
Had a friend Bobby who speed dated in a hospital nursery.
Played golf with a 60-year old friend, Frank (“Read the rules, shankapotomus!”)
And was accused of two-timing his baby girlfriend with “milkaholic Lindsey.”
In an ad shown during the opening game of the NCAA March Madness Tournament last week, the precocious toddler made his final appearance.
And it was a singing cat named Beanie that finally got the best of him, interrupting the baby's announcement that he was funding his retirement account through E-Trade.
Finally showing the immaturity of his years, the baby pitched a hissy fit at being upstaged, smashed his cellphone and declared: "I'm done. I'm out of here. Diane, pull the car around!"
The identity of this adorable advertising icon is not known.
Actually the names of all three E-Trade babies aren’t known.
Legend has it the baby was a 9-month old boy filmed in front of a green screen. He could see his mother directly ahead of him on a monitor so his attention was fully focused.
They used a five-year old actor for the facial animation (digitally inserted for the deadpan mouth movement), and a 30-year old actor provided the baritone voice.
Not everyone loved the idea of a talking baby giving investment advice. As one critic noted, “We prefer to get our advice from people who are potty-trained.”
E-Trade CEO Paul Idzik agrees.
He’s on record saying that the company “was taking the wrong approach to marketing and should be more scientific in measuring how its messages resonate with clients.”
"The baby was a wonderful iconic expression of what we were," new chief marketing officer Liza Landsman told Reuters. "But we want something that better reflects our present and where we are going."
Good luck with that.
The company’s new agency (Ogilvy & Mather) is planning to replace their TV ads with a marketing campaign delivered through online channels (Yahoo Finance), search engines (Google and Bing), and social networks (Facebook).
Times are changing, baby.
Anita Alvare (bio)/Alvare Associates/610-520-6140
E-Trade, E-Trade Baby, TV Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Networking, Search Engines
