Who is Arbie?
If you are Canadian you will be familiar with the mascot of the Royal Bank Of Canada. He is a little man who wears a bowler hat that never seems to come off of his head no matter what happens to him. Bet you probably did not know his name.
The campaign was dubbed the “Arbie” campaign – well do you get it “R. B.” or Royal Bank. Do not confuse him with Arby’s restaurants.
According to BBDO Toronto the Agency who came up with the idea as part of the “Create” program for the Royal Bank of Canada:
Launched during last summer’s Olympics, the Arbie campaign uses a blue-suited, bowler-hatted animated banker to make RBC feel less conservative and stuffy. This fresh approach to bank advertising includes the animated story of the Muffin Man growing his business beyond his imagination by following Arbie’s advice.
Check out the Royal Bank Create campaign on BBDO’s website
This little guy appears in every piece of Royal Bank of Canada advertising for every product. The picture is a poster on the waterfront in Toronto and is typical of the campaign.
Read more about the Royal Bank branding strategy on this blog post.
Arbie was very prominent at the recent Vancouver Olympics perhaps you might get lucky and get your hands on the Arbie pin?
You can see Arbie in action in this video from BBDO telling the story of Arbie:
http://www.bbdo.ca/en/create-totalwork-campaign-video-39.sn?open=yes
You can also see more of Arbie on You Tube the linked video deals with the RBC sponsorship of the Olympic torch bearing.
It is quite fascinating to me that a little bowler hatted guy is being used to indicate friendliness of a bank. I am from England where a bowler hatted guy in the Financial City of London is considered posh. Perhaps they are thinking that their guy is more like a Charlie Chaplin?
