HOUSTON – Motorists around the city were scratching their heads at last month’s appearance of billboards reading “Banks Hate Us,” with numerous candidates for banks to hate.
The target was no clearer two weeks later, when a kicker was added to the same signs asserting, “People Trust Us.” It was only two weeks after that the messenger was revealed: People’s Trust FCU.
This coy ad campaign will culminate with one final message on New Year’s Day: “Happy UnBanking.”
“We’re stirring things up in the community, that’s what we’re doing,” said Vernon Babilon, chief financial officer for the $280 million credit union, of the subtle dig at the local banks. “This is a kind of different approach. We’re not really attacking. We don’t say we hate banks; we’re saying that they don’t want us in business.”
“We had no plans or desire to do any kind of bank bashing and to this day we won’t,” the credit union executive told The Credit Union Journal yesterday.
The so-called guerilla ad campaign was designed by local ad house Richards/Carlberg, the same firm that created the Motel 6, “We’ll leave the light on” campaign. The campaign will maintain the “Happy UnBanking” tagline and will be expanded to include a website and supporting materials. “We want to build on this for several years. It’s going to be pretty slick,” said Babilon.
