Ah, love.
It's so not a feeling people associate with a bank, especially now.
But Union First Market Bank in Richmond, Va., is daring enough to invoke the 'L' word in its new branding campaign.
One television spot shows a couple parked in a red convertible. They hold hands and look up as if at a drive-in movie. Then the camera angle shifts to reveal that they are actually admiring the bank's sign.
"At Union, our customers love us, really love us," says a female voiceover. "Is it so wrong to love a bank?"
Alder & Associates in Richmond created the campaign, which introduces a new name and logo following the merger of Union Bank and Trust Co. and First Market Bank this spring.
The tag line is tongue-in-cheek, says Bart Alder, the president and creative director at the ad agency. It plays off the hostility directed at the banking industry these days. "You've got an environment where bankers are thought of as Snidely Whiplash twirling their mustaches," Alder says. "But that's not what community banks are about."
The campaign was inspired by research the two banks did last fall as they waited for regulators to bless their union. They asked customers to grade them on service and satisfaction, and nine out of 10 gave them an 'A' or a 'B'.
This point gets highlighted in a television spot that mimics an old-fashioned newsreel, with black-and-white footage from what might be the 50's or 60's. The scenes, a mix of live action and still shots, roll by quickly as an announcer narrates snippets of history about each bank.
"First Market Bank was founded in Ukrop's Supermarkets to provide the same helpful service and values enjoyed by Ukrop's customers," he says over old pictures from a grocery store, including a boy in a knee-length white apron loading bags of groceries in the back seat of a woman's car.
The spot closes with the announcer saying, "Now these two strong community banks, combining the best of the old and the new, are merging to answer the question, 'Is it so wrong to love a bank?'"
The bank began running its three television spots during the Winter Olympics in February, a month before the name change took place. Similar to the convertible spot, the third one teases viewers as a woman talks dreamily about how she's never felt so cherished, before it becomes apparent the object of her affection is the bank. But the newsreel one aired first, to lay the groundwork.
"Not everyone admires bankers at the moment," says Olen Thomas, the chief marketing officer at the bank's $3.8 billion-asset parent company, now rechristened Union First Market Bankshares Corp. "So what we'd like to make sure people understand is that we're two well-known, well-run, well-respected, community banks, and we came together to form Union First Market Bank. And based on surveys we've done, our customers like us."
In print ads Union continues to showcase its employees, as it has for years, Thomas says. It also runs ads with testimonials from local business customers.
Brady Walen, director of marketing at the consulting firm Market Insights in Chicago, says he thinks the campaign will get noticed."It's intriguing because they've switched the message around," Walen says. "A lot of banks will say, 'We love our customers.' Here, they're flipping it and saying, 'Our customers love us.' I can see that sparking interest."
But he says the bank's website should help reinforce the theme, possibly by expounding on why people feel so strongly. "There's no real evidence of the campaign message, 'Is it so wrong to love a bank?' at the website, which is generally the first place people go for more information."
Though a theme about love is risky, Alder says it is working, thanks to passionate employees. Union had virtually no customer defections during the merger. "Brands are a promise and they have to be believed," Alder says. "You've got good people out there in the branches who are doing a good job."
