TD is attempting to reintroduce itself to customers after its brand took a hit from a money-laundering scandal in the U.S.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T is using 60 seconds of Super Bowl airtime in Canada to kick off a refresh of its brand, aiming to shake off the damage done by a money laundering scandal and build momentum for a revamped strategy led by chief executive officer Ray Chun.
TD will reveal a new tagline, “More Human,” as the punctuation mark at the end of a Super Bowl ad that features a small robot wheeling its way through city streets, with help from people it encounters along the way.
The marketing campaign is rooted in the idea that as digitization and artificial intelligence take hold, banking needs to keep a human touch, or risk feeling less personal and more complex.
It is also a chance for TD to reintroduce itself to customers after a wrenching period for the bank when it was publicly flogged by U.S. authorities over anti-money-laundering failures and put under tough oversight from regulators that will cap its expansion in the United States for some time.
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The “More Human” brand will span TD’s Canadian and U.S. operations, supplanting TD’s hallmark pitch to U.S. customers that it was “America’s Most Convenient Bank.” In 2024, then-U.S. attorney-general Merrick Garland said the bank had been “convenient for criminals.”
The relaunch of TD’s brand “is really about the momentum that we’re getting by having a new CEO, by having a new strategy and vision and aspiration for the organization,” chief marketing officer Tyrrell Schmidt said in an interview.
But she also said that remediating anti-money laundering controls “continues to be the priority for the bank, has to be and will continue to be.”
The last time TD overhauled its brand and marketing campaign was in 2018, and the bank’s marketing team began work nearly a year ago on the revamp that rolls out starting on Sunday, Ms. Schmidt said.
TD’s marketing campaign is rooted in the idea that banking needs to keep a human touch.Supplied
Like most major banks, TD is investing heavily in digital banking and AI tools. But bank staff have repeatedly heard two things from clients and consumers, she said. One is that they expect their interactions with the bank to be “personal, intuitive, helpful. In short: More human.”
The other is that, even though most customers turn to digital banking channels first, “they want to be able to get to a human quickly” when they need to, she added.
TD hired JKR, a global branding agency based in London and New York that the bank hadn’t worked with before, to craft a new “visual identity.” And it used branches of the multinational advertising agency Publicis Groupe SA, a long-time partner, for the creative work to make TV, digital, and social media ads.
“We let them explore,” Ms. Schmidt said, but the bank opted to keep some core parts of its brand intact. The TD logo hasn’t changed, the bank is still green and, yes, “the green chair is there to stay,” Ms. Schmidt said.
There are more subtle changes, including a new marketing font, a simpler look and, in some ads, more movement in the logo to make it feel modern.
The bank’s 60-second Super Bowl ad will run in Canada, where airtime is much cheaper than the reported US$8-million to US$10-million for 30 seconds on U.S. broadcasts during this year’s game.
Ms. Schmidt did not reveal what the Canadian spot cost, but it is part of a package of advertising across multiple platforms that will launch after the game wraps up. As the campaign rolls out, TD is also planning digital banner ads, YouTube videos, as well as a presence on social media networks TikTok and Instagram.
In the U.S., TD is also buying placements on television networks around the Super Bowl, including some pre- and postgame spots in key markets. Because the New England Patriots are playing and TD has a large presence in the region, it will also have some local advertising in Boston during the game.
“It really is about kind of being seen as part of the overall game,” Ms. Schmidt said. “It’s an efficient and an effective buy.”