• International Herald Tribune, Tuesday, March 18, 2008 10:45 AM

ING, a Netherlands-based financial-services company known in the United States largely for its orange logos and banking cafes, has come up with a new TV and print effort tagged "Your Number," a reference to the amount of money people will need to retire in comfort. Ads show professional, well-dressed baby boomers going about their lives, while carrying a bright orange number with a dollar sign.

Some signs are five figures, while others are seven, but the people in the ads carry them everywhere. The idea is to reflect ING's "optimistic approach," says Tricia Conahan, senior vice president and head of brand marketing at ING Americas. "We're trying to make retirement less intimidating and more accessible to the average American." As Wall Street melts down, almost every major bank and investment company is working hard to attract retirement customers, whether via somber messages or idyllic scenes of old age, and ING's new campaign is a big step into that market.

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