• by Judy Warner , December 18, 2006

Charles Schwab Corp. expects to stay the course in 2007 with its asset-building "Talk to Chuck" marketing campaign while revamping its online presence.

The San Francisco-based discount brokerage continues to track positive results with its now year-old, typographically driven campaign. The print, television, out-of-home and online ads stand out in a category dominated by images of investors.

The campaign, created by Euro RSCG, features 30-second TV spots that have been filmed and then stripped of their elements so that the actors appear animated.

What Schwab has found, says Ben Stuart, vice president of brand strategy and advertising, is that viewers are more likely to listen to the investors' so-called "pain points" when they are animated rather than live action.

Pain points--headlines in print and online and the subject of conversation in broadcast ads--highlight the concerns of many investors. "Think you've got a dog in your portfolio?" and "'My house is worth a Million' is not a retirement plan."

While ad plans will "be more of the same," in 2007, the discount broker is planning a major overhaul of its site, schwab.com, to better "focus on issues that are important to investors in their brokerage relationships," Stuart says.

As for its media spend, Schwab will allocate "slightly more" across the board and increase the percentage of its media dollars allocated to Internet advertising. In the first half of 2006, Schwab spent just under $90 million on ads in U.S. measured media, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Already, Schwab is ahead of most advertisers, Stuart maintains--noting that although 25% of all media consumption is online, most advertisers allocate around 10% to online ads. Schwab already spends about 20% of its media dollars online.

"Currently, we're looking at making sure our journey online is the most intelligent," he says.

In its Monthly Activity Report, released last week, Schwab reported that net new assets totaled $10.5 billion in new and current clients in November, while total client assets climbed to $1.224 trillion--up 17% from November 2005 and 3% from the previous month.