Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a huge influx of cash: so much that you needed help giving it all away? Well, Ulster Savings Bank reached out to us with that exact issue! They wanted to increase the number of loans they were providing to the residents of the Hudson Valley. In addition, they wanted to increase awareness about their services, particularly in Dutchess County. Despite the fact that Ulster Savings Bank is one of the oldest financial institutions in the Hudson Valley, many people outside of Ulster County perceive them as a local bank. This couldn’t be further than the truth – they have locations throughout the entire Hudson Valley including Dutchess County.
For our first campaign, we wanted to really resonate with local business owners. We developed the idea of using children running a lemonade stand. Children are the ultimate resonator – everyone has been a child at one point, right? A lemonade stand is also pretty ubiquitous. Business owners tend to have been born with a particular entrepreneurial spirit and often their first foray into the business world was with a lemonade stand. We may tend to think of a lemonade stand as nostalgic and cute – but in reality, running a lemonade stand was rough! It was usually boiling hot outside, your little sister was always sneaking a drink from your stock, you were constantly swatting at flies that were attracted to the sugar, and lets not forget how many times your squirted yourself in the eye with acidic lemon juice! Many business owners feel the same way about their business – it can sometimes feel overwhelming, hot and sticky.
One of Ulster Savings Bank’s attributes is the vast amount of local resources they have available to business owners. So we decided to combine the lemonade motif with Ulster Savings Bank’s services for business owners and created the “Business is Sweet” campaign. Appearing in print, on radio, billboards and online, the campaign reflected the idea that “running a business doesn’t have to stink.”
It went over very well and we continued to build upon the child theme for the next advertising campaign. For this campaign, we wanted to highlight Ulster Savings Bank’s mortgage services – again, with a heightened focus on Dutchess County. Featuring children in school settings, the campaign highlighted Ulster Savings Bank model of educating their customers on all aspects of buying a mortgage.
As with the “Business is Sweet” campaign, the use of children as models for the graphics resonated strongly with the campaigns audience. Keeping the child theme consistent really enhanced Ulster Savings Bank’s branding efforts and kept a sense of fluidity and upward motion in their campaigns and goals.
