Cognizant TV Spot Destroys The Cliché Of Banks As Digital Transformation Laggards

Financial services firms such as banks and insurance companies often get criticized for failing to keep pace with customers’ digital expectations — including by their own employees, as Cognizant acknowledges in its latest TV commercial.

The 30-second spot takes place in a theater where team members of a major institution have gathered for a rousing speech by their CEO. Acknowledging the prevailing opinion that banks are often perceived as digital laggards, she encourages them to look at a new mobile app that has been deployed to their smartphones. The app, she promises them, is based on design thinking and includes the strongest possible security and even makes use of emerging technologies such as blockchain.

Someone in the crowd asks, somewhat skeptically, how far away the app is from production. Her answer comes as a surprise — though there’s still a bit of sarcasm at the end:

As a consulting firm, Teaneck, N.J.-based Cognizant works with all kinds of large enterprises on projects ranging from artificial intelligence to cloud computing. The TV spot, “Digital Technology For Markets,” is one of several produced by its agency, Atmosphere Proximity, that demonstrates its capabilities in a range of sectors and needs, such as the use of drones for research purposes. Other Cognizant commercials look at how it is investing in skills training for business professionals.

Amid its TV marketing campaign, Cognizant is reportedly in talks to acquire a digital engineering firm called Softvision and has also laid off approximately 200 senior employees in an effort to better align its executive team.