Ulster Bank returns to TV advertising in mortgage drive

June isn’t traditionally the month for mortgage drawdowns but that hasn’t stopped all the major lenders spending big on glossy advertising campaigns, mostly targeting first- time buyers and existing customers trading up.

Ulster Bank has entered the fray with a €1.8 million marketing push devised in Dublin by Oglivy (Mike Mesbur and Marcus Hartung were the creatives) with below the line devised by Bossanova. Significantly it's the first Ulster Bank TV advertisement since 2011 – the bank has been using creative content generated by its parent, Royal Bank of Scotland.

The campaign is an all- island one with the usual media mix of outdoor and digital as well as the touchy-feely TV. There’s a great Dane and gorgeous children to ratchet up the aaah factor (as against the aargh factor in the real world when it comes to monthly mortgage payments). The theme is “a mortgage you can live with” and the campaign will run until November.

In an unfortunate piece of timing, just as its big new mortgage campaign was gaining traction last week, the bank had also to communicate in a more prosaic fashion.

It was less giant dogs and cute kids, more straightforward information and reassurance in plain press ads – that Ulster Bank customers in the Republic were not impacted by its latest RBS IT glitch, while those in the North who may have been affected would be sorted out as soon as possible.