When out-of-town banks have begun to dominate the local landscape, how do you convince residents that your bank is truly part of the community’s bedrock?
Mutual Savings Bank has been serving Johnson County residents since 1890, choosing to continue its original focus of helping everyday people buy homes and save for the future while other financial institutions merged and diversified. When some of those new banks began to promote themselves as community banks, Mutual needed to find a way to remind residents that they were the real deal.
Scott Flood Writing created an ad campaign that used childhood photos of Mutual officers and staff members. The adorable images of today’s bankers as toddlers and teens provided a gentle reminder that they were a lot like the customers they served. More important, they subtly drove home the message that these bankers knew the community because they grew up there.
The campaign was nowhere near as flashy or fancy as what some of the competitors were using, but it was one thing those megabanks could never be: authentic. That message connected with the community and reinforced Mutual’s reputation.