Nationwide turns to AI after adverts starring Dominic West banned

Nationwide has turned to AI in a bid to avoid any further entanglements with a UK watchdog after its adverts starring Dominic West were banned for being misleading.

The country’s largest building society has entered into a ‘strategic partnership’ with Red Marker which it said will help its teams to “become more efficient and help ensure that our customers receive clear, fair and not misleading information through our marketing promotions”.

According to the announcement, Red Marker’s AI platform “enables real-time probabilistic risk identification in marketing and web content using machine learning rules and natural language processing for businesses in heavily regulated industries”.

Red Marker is owned by US-headquartered Kaplan, an international educational services company with offices in New York, London and Australia.

The deal comes after Adverts for Nationwide starring actor Dominic West were banned by the advertising regulator in their current form earlier this month for misleading consumers that the lender would not close branches like its rivals.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had launched an investigation into the television, radio and press ads after hearing from 281 complainants, including rival high street lender Santander.

Susan Turvey, senior manager financial promotions and advertising approvals at Nationwide, said: “We’re happy to be working with Red Marker, who will enable our teams to become more efficient and help ensure that our customers receive clear, fair and not misleading information through our marketing promotions.

“For an organisation which is so focussed on delivering the best possible customer service, this is really important to us.”

Mark Wood, chief operating officer at Red Marker, added: “We’re delighted to partner with Nationwide. Our strategic partnership is a testament to our joint commitment to consumer protection.

“Helping ensure accurate communications while actively mitigating risk in marketing communications is crucial in providing an outstanding customer experience.

“We are excited to be involved in this pivotal step toward fortifying internal operations and maintaining the highest standards for customer communication at Nationwide.”