ANALYSIS: Advertising - Bear market likely to dilute E*Trade's dramatic debut. Atifa Hargrave-Silk looks at at how online brokers are getting their message out

Stock brokers and sexy models don't usually have much to do with

each other, at least not professionally. But then again, neither does a

smashed up sports car and online trading.

However, as establishing a foothold in the already-crowded online

brokerage industry gets increasingly difficult, late comers to Hong Kong

are fighting for attention, armed with everything from free tissue

packets to dotcom stocks and smashed-up Ferraris.

When Tai Fook On-Line Services, a branch of Tai Fook Online Securities,

launched its services in November 2000, its senior executives found

themselves in the company of model Rosemary Vanden-broucke. Together

with 200 of their colleagues, they scouted the streets for potential

investors, handing out packets of tissues.

US-based online trading firm E*Trade Securities recently kicked off its

Hong Kong operation by ramming a car into a Ferrari. E*Trade's

television campaign has been created by BBDO, the agency behind the

in-your-face campaigns that have made Sunday telecoms a household name

in Hong Kong.

Clearly by ramming a car into a Ferrari, BBDO is hoping the eventful

start will help E*Trade achieve its - objective: to "get a reaction from

the Hong Kong public". That it did; more than 119 complaints have been

logged with the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority.

Viewers complained the ads encouraged destructive and vengeful

behaviour.

E*Trade managing director, Mathias Helleu, says the public "can expect

other promotions with great impact from us" and adds, "we will continue

to be bold, aggressive and humorous in our marketing". The campaign is

perhaps the latest sign of the intense competition rocking online

stockbroking in today's bear market and the lengths some have to go

through to compete.

One of the early players, Charles Schwab, has been marketing

aggressively for some time. Cash On-line, the online trading subsidiary

of Celestial Asia Securities, has established online trading cafes

throughout Hong Kong. It also splashed its name across billboards in

major districts.

Local firm Boom Securities opened trading branches and spent vast

amounts on promoting it services, while the securities arm of property

giant Sun Hung Kai also started its e-trading arm SHK Online. As Charles

Schwab's marketing director, Gary Leung, points out, the controversial

E*Trade TVCs are in line with the company's advertising tone in the US.

"If they hadn't come out with something dramatic, I would have been

shocked," Leung says.

However, the question many are asking is whether this aggressive

approach will make up for E*Trade's late market entry.

E*Trade has come into the market challenging established brokerages such

as Charles Schwab with an even lower commission rate. Motiv8 managing

director, Chris Fjelddahl, whose agency handles the Charles Schwab

account, says there is "always a case for ads that rock the boat", but

adds, "I think perhaps this approach is needed considering how late

E*Trade entered the market."

According to Fjelddahl, the two online brokerages are targetting a very

different market. "There is a big difference between someone who trades

Microsoft in the US, or someone who just trades Cheung Kong

locally."

Centro chief creative officer, Stanley Wong, agrees that the TVC has the

power to stop the audience in their tracks. But timing is another

matter.

Says Wong: "The idea is simple - jealously. It's one that not many have

touched on and the ad has been done beautifully. But it's the message

that is worrying. It's not really relevant at this time. They are giving

the message that E*Trade can make you a millionaire at a time when

stocks are down and there is unlikely to be any empathy. I'd say they

are a little late to promise this."