Marking the beginning of a new era for competition and consumer choice in the current account market, an advertising campaign has been launched today to promote the new Current Account Switch Service.

Spearheaded by the Payments Council and delivered by 33 bank and building society brands, the new Current Account Switch Service is designed to help consumers, small charities and small businesses make switching current accounts from one provider to another simpler, more reliable and hassle-free.

Going live across all platforms, the campaign, created by Engine, stars animated animal characters to drive awareness of the service and explain the concept to the public. Its purpose to show that standardised service will reduce switching times to just seven working days, also delivering increased customer choice and competition in the current account marketplace.

Mark Davison, a partner at Engine, says, “This campaign aims to drive awareness of a very important new initiative in a fun and eye-catching way. The potential that this service offers is huge and we believe that our characters, communications strategy and ‘Simpler World’ proposition underlines just how beneficial this scheme can be to the public.”

Creating a ‘simpler world’ for account switching, Engine’s advertising campaign draws on the behavioural traits of the featured animated characters to emphasise the key benefits of the service in comparison to the past. A feathered flying squad of birds represents the speed and efficiency of the new service and the automatic transfer of payments from a customer’s old account to their new one, and the seamless transformation from caterpillar to butterfly of the central character defines the hassle-free nature of the new Current Account Switch Service. Finishing the television advert with the butterfly landing on top of the Current Account Switch Service Guarantee Trustmark informs customers of what they should be looking out for if they want to switch.