Inside Money: It's child's play - how to choose a bank

Maybe a free piggybank is enough... Photo / Thinkstock

You know what.

I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, this is the most irritating bank ad in current TV rotation.

But despite its skin-crawly creepiness, the ad probably does its brand-awareness job for whatever the name of the bank is.

Banks spend a lot of money - over $100 million last year in New Zealand, according to some reports - trying to differentiate their virtually-identical services in the consciousnesses of an apathetic audience.

If the bank marketing works - which it must, otherwise why would they spend so much on it? - it probably does so by attrition, wearing down viewers until they surrender their consumer sovereignty - yeah, whatever, just don't lose my money or over-do the cross-selling.

I doubt, though, the banks engender anything in the way of loyalty or enthusiasm amongst adult viewers. (Having said that, a friend has been ranting on about The Co-operative Bank ¬ an updated version of the PSIS, whenever he gets the chance.)

But kids seem to respond to banking brands in a more positive manner as I discovered to my surprise last month.

Thanks to a fluke bet at the races (not an ideal first lesson in financial literacy, I admit) my daughter came into a relatively substantial cash sum.

Keen to parlay the big win into a more sober financial learning outcome, I suggested she plonk the lot in a bank account - minus my cut as the provider of capital.

I imagined that might result in a dreary trawl through the child account options of the various banks. Or at least a Google search (the best I could come up with was this old Consumer report).

Instead, she immediately named her banking institution of choice.

I don't recall having a preferred financial services provider as a six-year old so I was curious about her selection process: I didn't know what she was thinking.

"Why do you want that one?"

"Because my friend's got one and I want the same piggy bank."

And she's right, the helicopter is pretty cool.