pnc bank
Integrated Rebranding Effort across all lines-of-business and all media
Coming out of the ‘Great Recession’, people needed to readjust their expectations and slowly take charge of their financial lives again. By reframing everyday actions as small successes, people could have the confidence to take on bigger and bigger challenges.
PNC Bank, a mid-sized bank with midwestern values, was fortunately not involved in the financial crises and was in a unique position to illuminate this simple redefinition of ‘success’. Their corporate philosophy of hard work and building products & services around their customers could actually help ‘activate’ achievements of all shapes, sizes and time horizons.
However, this was a major challenge given the campaign we inherited, along with the company’s numerous lines-of-business (with wildly disparate internal & external target audiences and varying client-approval structures). Nonetheless, in 9 months we successfully unified the entire company under one simple umbrella platform and then started carving out unique expressions for every line-of-business, each of which is worthy of it’s own case study. 18 months later, we have created over 1,500 unique pieces of brand and retail creative across all media,increased the number of accounts and revenue, while helping them grow to the sixth largest bank in the country |read all our facts and accolades|.
agency: Deutsch Inc./NY
brand
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
The first 9 months of the bank’s rebranding effort was spent reframing the notion of ‘ACHIEVEMENT’. We positioned the accomplishment of any and every goal, big and small, as an achievement. This was cathartic to the self-confidence of our customers, given the economic environment.
We created a masthead, ‘ACHIEVEMENT:’ with attainable goals described beneath. It soon became clear how strong the legs of this simple architecture was and how it could be applied that to every facet of life or business. We engaged our audience wherever they were – at home, driving to work, waiting for the bus, in the aisle of the grocery store, shopping on the web, at the ballgame. To our clients’ elations, there wasn’t a situation we encountered where the simple messaging architecture could not resonate.
virtual wallet banking
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
After successfully rebranding the company at large, each line-of-business was hungry for their own unique sub-campaign of ‘ACHIEVEMENT:’. Despite being a midwestern company, PNC Bank prided itself as a technological innovator in the financial category, constantly developing ergonomically-advanced tools with entirely new interfaces.
Case in point is Virtual Wallet, their non-ledger-based, visually-dynamic, click and drag, online savings account. Designed specifically for the Millennial target audience, with lots of playful, interactive features and tools ‘built’ for their achievements. One such feature is the ‘Punch the Pig’ tool. It proved such a favorite among customers, that we created a separate game out of it and built interactive storefronts to tease the feature.
small business banking
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
PNC wanted small business owners to know that they understood and appreciated how challenging their particular situation is. luckily, their SBO clients were effusive about their relationships with their PNC Small Business Bankers and PNC was insistent we capture that.
Small business testimonials are an over-trodden genre and usually quite boring to the layperson. The challenge was to make them engaging by unearthing the ‘soul’ of each SBO’s story and make the most of each executional decision. We shot 13 long-form testimonials for online viewing and a small business utility microsite. The work and results went far beyond the clients’ (admittedly, the toughest at PNC) expectations and has been a critical success for this line of business.
One production note: Bill not only was creative director on this campaign, but acted as co-director and co-interviewer.
wealth management
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
Given its broad target audience, PNC has various sub-businesses to service each of their retirement and investing needs.
From the novice, looking to simply open an IRA, to high net-worth individuals planning an estate, we had to be sensitive to these nuances and give each subdivision their own look and feel, We had to manage what ‘ACHIEVEMENT:’ means to each of them, while still unifying them graphically and spiritually.
financial literacy
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
PNC had forged a partnership with Sesame Street to promote financial literacy in pre-school children and teach them not just about money, but about the value of money. PNC even developed it’s own fun and easy, online savings account for kids called the “S” is for Savings Account. It incorporates learning lessons that parents and their children can do together.
We created a campaign intended to drive parents in-branch, or online to open an account and experience the account with their child. Additionally, we created the ‘Little Achievers Club’ which would live online and more interestingly, in key branches. When parents come to the branches to do their banking, Sesame characters would digitally engage the children and help teach them the value of money with short lessons and activities.
new market outreach
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
PNC, headquartered in Pittsburgh, acquired numerous regional banks between 2009 and 2011. The transitions were successful in most markets, except in Cleveland. Given the local, longtime rivalry between the 2 cities, the Cleveland branches wanted their own take on ‘ACHIEVEMENT:’. Additionally, the city itself has had an identity and confidence crisis for a number of years.
We created a integrated, social, local campaign, uniquely for the Cleveland market, that acts a rallying cry for the embattled city, a community builder and a model for how PNC enters new markets.
sports sponsorships
Line-of-Business Integrated
Sub-Campaign
Football is a big part of most Clevelanders’ lives. The Browns are a source of hope, inspiration and identity for the city, coming alive on Sundays and igniting Clevelanders’ sense of self and community.
Browns football was a perfect venue for the ‘Cleveland Starts Here’ campaign. The stadium domination for PNC Bank engaged every Clevelanders’ fall Sunday ritual, from radio spots on the way to the game, to concourse posters on their snack runs, to starting cheers in the stadium bowl.
