Halifax (bank) November 2009, HBOS was hit by a power failure which affected all branches, cash machines and online banking. The bank said that the power failure occurred at an IT centre in Copley, West Yorkshire which caused several problems for Halifax's banking system. Halifax's online banking system did not recover from the power failure for several hours. On Boxing Day 2000, Halifax started a successful marketing campaign, which was continued after the creations of HBOS. Halifax have also created adverts that have featured popular cartoon characters like The Flintstones, Top Cat, Scooby-Doo, The Wizard of Oz and Thunderbirds (TV series). Halifax
HBOS Marketing Campaign with news agency Reuters, Brown said: In 2004, the Bank Of Scotland dropped Howard from their versions of the adverts. The Bank of Scotland stated that Scottish customers could not stand him because he was "too in-your face, and particulary annoying". HBOS admitted mistakes have been made in promoting the new image north of the border, as it did not take into account the Bank of Scotland brand nor its heritage. The replacement advertising campaign instead feature Scottish members of staff, although the animated version of Howard were used north of the border. HBOS Marketing Campaign In late 2000, UK