Professional models are great, but sometimes real people are the best choice for advertising campaigns. That was the consensus this spring when Savings Bank of Walpole met with its marketing agency, Communicators Group, to create an overall branding campaign for 2008.
The result? A coordinated campaign featuring 12 actual customers of the bank, whose images are currently appearing on the bank’s annual report, and many of whom also appear in lobby posters, counter cards, Web banner ads and traditional print ads. Several customers can also be heard in radio spots for the bank.
According to Communicators Group president Jeff Whitcomb, “We created Savings Bank of Walpole’s tag line “The Savings Bank of You” to let customers know much they mean to the bank. Now we’ve given the line a twist by offering the customers a platform to talk about what SBW means to them. In this campaign, SBW customers talk about why they chose to bank locally, and what keeps them coming back.”
The customers featured in the campaign range in age from their teens to their eighties. One is a young woman who had just opened an account; others have been with the bank for decades. All were enthusiastic about appearing as spokespersons for their bank.
Ed Tomey, who appears in a lobby poster, a print ad, and a radio commercial, is typical of how SBW customers feel about the bank.
“I walk into either of the branches here and I feel like they’ve been waiting for me to walk in the door … No matter how busy people are it’s not about their being busy. It’s about my being there.”
Martha A. Curtis, marketing manager at Savings Bank of Walpole, says that feedback from customers has been very positive. “One of our models called and said she didn’t know how many people read the Keene Sentinel until her picture was in the paper!” she said.
Photography for the campaign was by Tom Raffelt of New England Studio in Keene. The media buy for the campaign included local newspapers, websites and radio stations. To view the campaign, log on to: www.communicatorsgroup.com/SavingsBankofWalpolecampaign
Communicators Group is a full-service advertising and marketing company with offices in Keene, NH and Brattleboro, VT, providing strategic marketing solutions and services including branding, advertising, web design, sales promotion and more.
