Until recently, banks steered clear of using stars in the arts and entertainment industry as their brand ambassadors.
Even after GT Bank signed on Okyeame Kwame as brand ambassador in 2014, the banks still remained largely indifferent to the idea of using Ghanaian entertainers for that job.
But five years on, in 2019, Standard Chartered Bank took over the torch light and took it to another level by signing two big Ghanaian entertainers as brand ambassadors – Sarkodie and Joselyn Dumas.
Now some banks are beginning to see value in employing the services of Ghanaian entertainers since the move by Standard Chartered Bank started yielding result.
Until then, the use of entertainers as brand ambassadors remained with telcos, smartphone dealers and players in the cosmetic, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, food, electronics and industries, while banks stuck with suit-wearing, corporate-looking persons with low public appeal.
The banks probably felt too corporate, prestigious and elitist to use entertainers to appeal to the middle to upper class of the society, who were their main target market.
The irony of it is that the very big companies and elite class the banks targeted as clients, were the very companies and business leaders that use entertainers as brand ambassadors.
Now two other banks have followed suit – Absa Bank (formerly Barclays Bank) has employed the services of another screen diva, Berla Mundi, while FNB Bank has also signed on multiple award-winning and longest-lasting dancehall artiste Samini as representative of the brand.
Joselyn Dumas
Joselyn Dumas, one of the brand ambassadors for SCB told Techgh24 that the decision by SCB to choose entertainers as brand ambassadors is a smart one because “myself and Sarkodie have bridged the gap between the elite and average Ghanaian.”
She explained that prior to their appointment, many average Ghanaians saw SCB as some prestigious and elitist bank that had no place for people like them, but “now we have gotten many of those people to open accounts with the bank and now others also aspire to reach that level.”
Joselyn Dumas said there was a time when some of the elite banks would never open account for anyone who did not have at least GHC5,000 as initial deposit, but now they allow deposit-free accounts.
SC Mobile App
“Even with the SC Mobile App you can open a bank account remotely and use it for a complete bouquet of banking service such as investment, money transfer and other without having to visit the bank and join long queues,” she said.
The screen diva said “I even use by SC Mobile App to send and receive money abroad,” adding that “even during the COVID-19 lockdown period I used by SC Mobile App to transfer relief money and to buy airtime for the many people I supported.”
Joselyn Dumas said normally, she would have used Mobile Money for such transactions, but the SC Mobile App allowed her to do those transaction directly from her SCB account.
She described the App as a lifestyle enhancement tool because it gives the user direct and unrestricted access to his or her bank account and it is interoperable with other electronic money platforms like mobile money “and that is the convenience we are talking about.”
Joselyn Dumas is therefore encouraging Ghanaians to download and sign on to the SC Mobile App for convenient and full bouquet of banking services “in the palm of your hand.”
According to her, SC Mobile App can be downloaded from both the Google Play Store (Android) and from the Apple Store (iOS).
She also believes the effective collaboration between banks and the personnel in the arts and entertainment industry would go a long way to bridge the gap between the elite and average, by, particularly make the average person aspire to the prestige in owning accounts in top banks.
