MONEY MATTER$

Do credit lenders’ commercials affect youth spending and do they need to be more responsible? Joyce Yip reports.

A child gets off school waiting to be picked up by his father. But when he sees the man in front of him in poor attire, the supposed joy disappears from his face and he quickly runs to a second well-dressed “father” in another direction.

This was the 2005 “Good Father” commercial of credit lender, PrimeCredit. The messages behind the TVC were obvious: wealth doesn’t only reign over blood relations, but it can even win over the hearts of your offspring – and the credit lending company can help you achieve all of that.

Though it didn’t stop the commercial from running, the then Broadcast Authority condemned the TVC for encouraging children to materialism, negatively portraying the father-son bond and depicting important human relationships in an insensitive and irresponsible manner.

“Good Father” was also criticised for being demeaning to the poor and misleading to the audience by imparting the message that lesser-privileged fathers should borrow from credit lenders to qualify as a good parent.

This concept of easy wealth and the normalisation of spending borrowed money for personal pleasures – which are most of what these TVCs advocate – becomes problematic in a city where consumerism is already one of the biggest vices for the younger generation.

Credit lenders appeal to the young is not news. Credit Gain, for example, has a handful of teens and young adults strutting to a catchy “Show me the Money” tune, which raps out their money woes.

UA’s campaigns, on the other hand, open the money gate after young couples have over splurged on travelling (an ad features a couple en route to a pan-Europe trip with a detour to Japan) and shopping (where the boyfriend in the TVC flipped open a wallet full of credit card bills while the girlfriend is still shopping).

If money is acquired so easily and quickly, and if everyone is doing it, getting a loan seems to be inconsequential and non-problematic. And it’s precisely these commercials that allow for such irrational concepts to flourish.

Eric Chui

Associate dean at the faculty of social sciences at the University of Hong Kong

Even Promise, which has been faring on a more practical edge by heralding its promotions and the convenience angle, has enlisted a cartoon logo.

Matthew Cheng, a veteran in handling credit lending clients, and group account director for Grey – the agency which served PrimeCredit from 2006 to 2010 – says he has long noticed this trend of appealing to the young. “The target audience for credit lenders’ commercials has definitely got younger,” he says.

“It all has to do with catering to this new audience’s need for money: unlike the previous generations, they are not shy to make a loan. Borrowing money is no longer a social stigma for young adults. So naturally, they have entered the credit lenders’ radars.”

According to the recent numbers from the JP Morgan Asset Management Investor survey, 12% of 589 participants polled within the 20-29 age group belonged to the “moonlight clan”, which are people who live beyond their means, surviving on their pay cheque month to month or even borrowing to cover debt.

And shopping plays a large part in where all that green goes.

In 2006, AC Nielsen found 93% of Hong Kong respondents described shopping as a form of entertainment in its global survey; the city also ranked the highest in shopping frequency, with 34% hitting the malls at least once a week, often just for something to do.

In terms of what they buy, the research said 40% of respondents in Hong Kong claimed to buy luxury brands – this number is more than double that of the regional average of 15%. The city even tops the world in proportion of people claiming to buy Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry.

Eric Chui, associate dean at the faculty of social sciences at the University of Hong Kong, and an expert in youth behaviour, says credit lenders’ personal loan commercials dictate a lot of young adults’ spending patterns.

“It’s really about the rational choice theory: the more common [these commercials are], the higher chances young people will get in touch with them and the higher chances of them being influenced,” he says.

“And with the messages of efficiency and speed [in borrowing money], the value of money becomes a simple and easy idea. And who doesn’t want easy money?”

Aside from skewing the young’s concepts and values of wealth, what’s more concerning is the sense of irresponsibility these campaigns are promoting.

“If money is acquired so easily and quickly, and if everyone is doing it, getting a loan seems to be inconsequential and non-problematic,” he says. “And it’s precisely these commercials that allow for such irrational concepts to flourish.”

The epitome of such twisted values on money is perhaps most predominant in the children that Joe Cho-Yiu Tang, social work supervisor at the Caritas Addicted Gamblers Counselling Centre, sees every day.

Last month, the centre announced of its 3,900-plus cases from 2003 to the present, almost 17% are under 29. Half of this group is 16-20; it carries more than HK$200,000 of debt, earns a mere salary of HK$5,000-15,000 per month and, most worryingly, contains the highest percentage of problematic gamblers compared with other age groups.

Like Cheng and Chui, Tang also slams these creditors’ TVCs for pushing young adults down the path of temptation.

“By encouraging people to borrow, they’re instilling a belief that it’s easy to acquire wealth,” he says. “And these effects are more prominent in youth because this group identifies themselves with materialistic possessions more so than their elder counterparts.”

Though Cheng says these commercials are irresponsible, he can’t blame the entire social phenomenon on them, but credits youth’s misbehaviour on the city’s overall attitude toward materialism.

Of course, there are moral issues, but at the same time, it’s also a matter of supply and demand. A long time ago, people borrowed money for practical, serious things. Now, they take out the money for prolonging enjoyment. So as a marketer, we have to shift our strategy.

Matthew Cheng

Grey Group Hong Kong group account director

“It’s not just credit lenders’ commercials, but spending commercials, mobile commercials – the youths are sucked into this consumer whirlpool, yet how can they satisfy all their desires? They earn only 12,000 to 13,000 dollars per month, yet they’re buying phones that are half of their salaries. Naturally, those who can’t afford it will gamble.”

From an agency’s point of view, Cheng agrees the messages of consumerism can only be avoided to a certain extent when dealing with a credit-lending client.

“Of course, there are moral issues, but at the same time, it’s also a matter of supply and demand,” he says, citing agencies and brands must establish a connection to their biggest customer niche to best maximise their advertising dollars.

“A long time ago, people borrowed money for practical, serious things, like paying for the first home or studying. Now, they take out the money for prolonging enjoyment. So as a marketer, we have to shift our strategy.”

So, as the agency who won PrimeCredit over after the problematic “Good Father” TVC in 2005, Cheng revamped the company with a new brand image – one that features humour, brotherhood and male ambassadors in a predominately women’s world (both Promise and UA sport a pretty young girl’s face).

“Back when we took the account over, we wanted to create a brand to remember for our consumers while offering a differentiation from our competitors,” he says, explaining the birth of the PrimeCredit “On Shun Brothers” – which takes the company’s Chinese name.

Officially launched in October 2006, the On Shun Brothers first saved the day by offering personal loans to a customer at a restaurant who has realised that everyone at his table ran away after he has expressed his money problems.

In 2008, the TVC’s heroes embarked on another mission by acting as the credit card debt police.

This branding concept of the credit lender as a friendly buddy was not only done for the sake of standing out, but it’s an image that best resonated with most of the company’s study groups, according to Emily Chow, head of marketing at PrimeCredit.

“Since 2006, we’ve continuously pumped out new products and services under the On Shun Brothers umbrella,” Chow says. “The tonality has remained fairly much the same: the idea of brotherhood and that we’ll be there for the customer as a friendly neighbour no matter what happens. It’s a playful, witty, yet serious and approachable image.”

When asked about the correlation of credit lenders’ commercials to spending and gambling habits, Chow says these behaviours are not classified by once-in-a-lifetime activities and the market is always pushed by what is on the highest demand.

“There’s really no direct link,” she says.

While the regressing debate of the chicken or the egg goes on, Grey’s Cheng – who has been taking on campaigns for Sun Hung Kai Finance since its move from PrimeCredit – says it’s all about brand positioning at the end of the day.

“Given that SHK Finance’s profile is more corporate and targets a more professional clientele, its ads can be more realistic and less gimmicky,” he says, citing a campaign featuring a magic button that pumps out money when pressed.

So while credit lenders may not be keen to give up their portion of the youth market, agencies can always go back to the basics of good advertising before launching a Generation Y-targeted campaign.

“At the end of the day, ads have to reel in the customer, draw connection, create resonance and establish a relationship – these are the basics of a successful campaign,” Cheng says.

“But when a brand or agency is marketing to youth in terms of spending, they really have to walk the beam of hitting the target audience and asking themselves whether it’s morally right to pass on that message.”