Natick-based Middlesex Savings Bank recently received a pair of awards from the American Bankers Association Marketing Network for its creative marketing efforts.
With national financial institutions like Bank of America establishing more of a foothold in Massachusetts, many banks are turning to more creative marketing. And two Bay State banks were recently honored by the American Bankers Association Marketing Network for their efforts to differentiate themselves from the competition.
“We don’t think we can afford to get out-shouted,” said Jim Briand, director of marketing for Natick-based Middlesex Savings Bank, which recently won runner-up prizes for humor and community service.
The winners of the ABA Marketing Network’s Financial Marketing Awards were chosen based on the implementation of their communications strategy, tone, message and positioning, as well as the campaign’s overall quality, according to Susan Besaw of ABA.
Another Massachusetts bank, Worcester-based Commonwealth National Bank, won the award for its annual report.
“What we’re trying to do is make our annual report readable, interesting and not plain vanilla,” said bank President and Chief Executive Officer Charles R. Valade.
Commonwealth National has a history of bringing creativity to its annual reports. In 2004 it looked and read like a newspaper. Last year, it was a four-page, full-color brochure that told of the bank’s accomplishments in short, easy-to-read paragraphs.
This year’s annual report is a colorful, fold-out document that uses a roadmap theme to emphasize the bank’s successes and goals.
The bank works with an advertising agency to publish the annual report, and tries to incorporate its overall message. The bank is relatively new – it opened in 2001 – and Valade said the annual report is important to him and the rest of the bank’s executives as a way to reach out to shareholders.
“We have a lot of shareholders who have been there from the beginning,” Valade said. “These people have shown good faith in us.”
The report is designed to be easier to digest than the annual reports typically produced by most banks.
“I think sometimes the stories are longer to read,” said Valade.
The report also focuses on the long term, something that is a philosophy of the bank’s executives.
“I think it’s interesting reading. We tried to make it different,” Valade said. “We tried to set ourselves apart from the other banks in our community.”
‘A Local Level’
At Middlesex Savings, marketing executives try to emphasize the bank’s connection to the communities it serves. The bank, which operates 24 branches, is larger than many of the community institutions in the area, so it has many of the technical capabilities of bigger banks. It is a different customer experience, according to Briand.
“We believe it’s very important to get that message out,” he said.
Also, larger institutions such as Bank of America and Citizens Bank advertise so much, it is important to keep up, he said.
Briand added that Middlesex Savings was proud of the two runner-up awards it received. The humor award was for a television spot that focused on the bank’s above-average rates for savings accounts and CDs. The commercial compared those offerings with some giveaways other institutions have offered, like iPods and bobblehead dolls. After introducing those in the television spot, the camera pulled away and showed the hook attached to each giveaway.
“It was done in a fun, lighthearted way,” Briand said.
The community service award was for a body of work. Each year the bank sponsors several events, such as a Fourth of July picnic in Natick to which the whole town is invited. It also gives away coffee and hot chocolate at local high school Thanksgiving football games.
“Larger institutions celebrate the Patriots,” Briand said. “We do the same thing, but on a local level.”
The local focus is an important part of the bank’s advertising strategy, he added.
“We try to take a very professional approach to advertising and combine it with a very local knowledge,” Briand said. “We try and bring that out in our advertising.”
The bank won a Financial Marketing Award last year for a television spot that focused on ATM rebates. Middlesex Savings was one of the first banks to offer rebates on other banks’ ATM fees for its customers, and it featured that service in a commercial. In that ad, a number of ATMs of different colors gradually turned blue, the color of Middlesex Savings’ ATMs. The theme was “Every ATM becomes your ATM.”
Forty-eight banks from across the country won awards. The national competition has been in existence for 35 years and recognizes the year’s most impressive campaigns in the categories of branding, customer acquisition/retention marketing, community service, diversity, financial education, humor, inspiration, internal branching and annual reports.
