Banks angered at new tax
It was back in 2012 when former head of the Australian Bankers' Association Steven Munchenberg sat down with the late great ad man Neil Lawrence.
The creative mastermind behind Kevin 07, Lawrence was fresh from the success of the mining industry's outstanding campaign against the resources super profit tax, which was in tatters.
Munchenberg had grown concerned about how banks were perceived by the public and wanted Lawrence to put together another campaign.
One that would put an end to bank bashing and educate the public about the industry's contribution to the economy.
Lawrence had plenty of ideas but Munchenberg wasn't able to get internal support from the ABA's stakeholders and it never got out of first gear.
The failure of the banks to get behind the campaign could be seen as something of a sliding doors moment for the industry.
They let one of the greatest minds in advertising slip through their fingers just as their PR problem began to metastasise, arguably culminating in Tuesday's federal budget and the announcement of an audacious $6.2 billion tax grab.
Advertising and public relations experts say that there is no quick fix to the sector's image problem. They say that the big four banks, Macquarie and the ABA have their work cut out for them.
Sue Cato is the principal of Cato Counsel, she advises companies on major transactions and in times of crisis. She says that the best the banks can hope for at this point is to get out of the firing line.
"It's got to be a positive brand campaign. If the banks go on the attack it will backfire. It would have to be about their contribution to society and community," Ms Cato said.
Another consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the banks have been slow to get out of the blocks. He said that the banking industry needs to act decisively or risk being seen as a soft target by the government.
"It's similar to what happened to the mining companies but in that instance Marius Kloppers got told on a Friday, put a team together over the weekend and by Monday things were really moving," he said.
Some experts have said that the banks needed to contextualise their billion dollar profits by explaining that 70 per cent to 80 per cent of these are paid out to shareholders in the form of dividends.
The Commonwealth Bank made a reference to this relationship on Wednesday when its four paragraph response to the tax included a picture of Joan and George, a retired couple who are among the bank's 800,000 shareholders.
Geoff Denman is the creative director and strategist at Industrial. Among his best work was campaign that saw the WA Nationals defeated after they announced a policy that would see BHP and Rio Tinto pay an additional $7.2 billion over four years.
He says that that the public's perception of the industry has been formed over a long period of time. It has calcified making any campaign so much harder.
"Reasonable people respond to reasonable arguments," Mr Denman said. "The banks need to explain to people exactly how they operate. Why they make the profits they do and exactly where those profits go."
