To dodge ad blockers this bank ran banner ads in newspapers instead

To Dodge Ad Blockers, This Bank Ran Banner Ads in Newspapers Instead

Here's an unexpected bright spot for the struggling print industry. One French advertiser is taking its digital banner ads and putting them into a newspaper

Boursorama Bank, a subsidiary of Société Genéralé that specialises in online banking and finance, is running a promotion that offers a 130 credit for an account opened between Nov. 24 and 27. But agency Buzzman has cheekily taken the web-browser version of the coupon and inserted it into a print layout for a newspapersupposedly to reach users who are running ad blocking software.

"We didn't want you to miss our banner ad," reads the copy. "So we put it here."

A small browser window appears below, including a visual button instructing readers to "Click here" to redeem the offera premise that can't but evoke some hapless soul mashing a finger against the page repeatedly, like a toddler trying to swipe left on a magazine cover while mistaking it for a tablet, or Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson jumping on a desk and banging on an iMac like monkeys while trying to get the files out from "in the computer," in that scene from Zoolander.

Naturally, the ridiculousness of the exercise is its real point (rather than circumventing anti-advertising software, as it purports to do). It's certainly chuckle-worthy, though one has to wonder who the campaign's target audience actually is.

Buzzman says the ad will run in France's largest newspapers, so presumably it might be after people old enough to bother reading current events on dead tree. More likely, the brand and agency (Buzzman excels at absurdity) are going for amused online coverage and social chatter and it's earned as much as its getting here, at least.

Sadly, it probably won't be enough to save newspapers in the long run.

CREDITS

Client: Boursorama Banque
Managing Director: Benoît Grisoni
Deputy Managing Director: Aurore Gaspar
Marketing & Portal Director: Xavier Prin
Marketing & Digital Communication Director: Stéphanie Demmerlé
Brand Manager: Tounsia Amrani
Brand Communications Officer: May Khalil
Brand Communications Officer: Alice Mazeyrat

Agency: Buzzman

President and Executive Creative Director: Georges Mohammed-Chérif
Vice President: Thomas Granger
Managing Director: Julien Levilain
Artistic Director / Copywriter: Mickael Krikorian
Artistic Director / Copywriter: Victor Sidoroff
Assistant Artistic Director: Gianni Leotta
Assitant Copywriter: Romuald Mevaere
Head of Account: Bénédicte Muller
Account Director: Laura Quiles
Account Executive: Lola Pegoraro
Strategic Planner: Clément Scherrer
Head of Social Media: Julien Scaglione
Head of PR & Communication: Amélie Juillet
PR & Communication Assistant: Julie Claeyman
PR & Communication Assistant: Suzanne Langlais
Head of Digital Production: François Phan
Digital Production: Renaud Lacassagne
Print Production: Dee Perryman

Source: ADWEEK