A full-service marketing, creative branding and digital communications agency specializing in strategic content creation.

A Full Service Branding and Digital Agency | Lewis

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Banking & Finance

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Banking & Finance Companies We’ve helped Grow

Ready to see real creative solutions that produce real results? Reach out and we’ll get started.

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Let’s do something great.

Can a color convey trust? How about a typeface? What does your website say about your attention to detail? When it comes to branding for finance, there's no room for error. Every touchpoint of your business is saying a mouthful. We bring decades of experience designing for the financial sector. Ensuring your brand is saying the things your clients want to hear. Conveying trust, reliability, and the potential for a wealthier tomorrow.

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Ascend Federal Credit Union

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Situation

Tennessee has the usual assortment of megabanks with massive footprints and large marketing budgets. But it also has bold, scrappy players like Ascend Federal Credit Union. Facing intense competition, leadership came to us in search of market share. Lewis showed Ascend how they could go toe to toe with the big banks, with a unified marketing plan to drive measurable increases in awareness, assets and membership.

Humanize the brand. Gain market share.

Approach

Our research told us Tennesseans don’t particularly love or trust large banks. So, we reintroduced Ascend to the market, humanizing the brand with a no-nonsense, straight-talking campaign that focused on Ascend’s integrity and community values. Along the way, we were able to educate the public that Ascend could do everything a bank could do.

Our efforts accomplished significant growth in every measurable category.

Results

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The quality of video production says a lot about the quality of a brand. Whether it's a scripted commercial on TV or a customer testimonial on social media. Our in-house production team provides full-service capabilities. Lighting, shooting, casting, editing and finishing—we do it all from beginning to end. Growth is beautiful. And we make sure it looks that way.

Content Production

Behind every return on investment is a lot of number crunching. The same is true for marketing. We're equal parts left brain and right. Using data, analytics, and deep insight to inform standout creative. It's how we create advertising that moves the needle and brings measurable ROI. And that's a beautiful thing.

Marketing

While continuing our efforts on strengthening the Ascend Federal Credit Union brand, the Lewis team saw an opportunity for growth in the Nashville DMA. To seize on that opportunity, we proposed to create a campaign that would attract new members—and energize the existing ones—via Ascend’s mortgage, new auto loan and deposit offerings.

Inspiring new members, one goal at a time.

The Lewis team responded by creating a campaign largely designed to appeal to a younger demographic (adults in their 30’s and 40’s) than those previously targeted by Ascend, with scenarios that also were more relatable to individuals living in a metropolitan area.

The Work

The resulting work painted Ascend as a sophisticated financial partner who can help people achieve their goals, even if those goals may not seem immediately attainable—the latter point reinforced by the campaign line “We’re here to help make your “someday”... someday soon.”

In the months following the launch of the campaign, Ascend saw an increase in web traffic and in product growth from the targeted younger demographics. Ascend also saw significant growth in membership from the targeted demographics, with ages 18-34 now accounting for over 50% of auto, mortgage, and rec loan new members. The campaign also won the coveted Diamond Award from the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Marketing & Business Development Council.

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Unless you like wasting money, return on ad spend is a necessity. We take a deep and constant look at every touchpoint in your customer's journey. Optimizing areas that are potential hiccups. Why are so many customers abandoning carts? Is it taking too many clicks to get to what they want? Could they be upsold before checkout? In the end, if your marketing dollars aren't converting into sales, something is wrong. And that's exactly what we're here to fix. 

ROAS

Alabama Farm Credit

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Overview

Alabama Farm Credit was one of Alabama’s principal lenders for agricultural and rural land. But they had an identity and logo largely unchanged from 1963, that was not only dated but visually identical to competing land banks in the state and across the country. AFC needed greater separation from their competitors and to convey the unique advantages to farmers that regular banks simply couldn’t offer.

Transforming a brand and growing Alabama’s future.

Background

Working with AFC is unique because they are farmers themselves. As such, they bring a unique level of guidance and advice to customers that’s only possible when your lender truly understands farming and its economic cycles. Plus, each borrower becomes a stockholder in the organization, receiving an annual check based on the company’s performance. Potential customers didn’t fully understand the depth of partnership that was available to them at AFC.

Powerful campaign elements were created to bring emotion and clarity to the Alabama Farm Credit story, launching the tagline Together We Grow – a positioning based on mutual prosperity. We evoked images and memories of the way farmers have always helped one another through time – the very essence of what AFC still does today. An all-new brand identity transformed AFC’s staid traditional image into a thoroughly modern financial brand.

We took the lead on designing an all-new website to better communicate AFC’s strengths and brand identity. Distinctive new signage featuring our logo now appears across the state. As elements of the brand continue to roll out, Alabama Farm Credit is now far better positioned to grow its organization – and the business of the farmers who rely upon it.

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Everyone knows that branding is much more than colors and a logo. It's an experience. We craft every touchpoint with thought and care. Creating a symphony of memorable moments from beginning to end. Crafting brands that feel once-in-a-lifetime every time.

Branding

Trustmark Squad Student Banking

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Trustmark, a $16 billion bank with markets stretching from Houston to the Florida panhandle, asked us to help them expand banking relationships with younger audiences. While they already had a suitable product that students could sign up for, they didn’t offer a specific student banking product or experience, and identified this as an opportunity for growth.

Capturing tomorrow’s customers today.

“Tried and true” becomes “old and tired” when marketing financial institutions to this rising Gen Z audience, as well as their Millennial and Gen X parents. Our business intelligence team worked to uncover the many nuances of the younger generation when it comes to their unique banking needs and expectations.

By tapping into the desires and priorities of our target audience, we were able to achieve a +64% year-over-year new account increase for the demographic.

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At Ascend Federal Credit Union, banking is about more than money — it’s about character. Because true worth isn’t measured by what’s in your wallet, but by what’s in your heart. It’s about values: doing right by others, living with integrity, and always putting people first. Born and raised in Middle Tennessee, Ascend is rooted in the same principles as the communities it serves. And everything they do — from the products they offer to the guidance they give — is focused on improving the lives of those who call the area home. This brand campaign was created to reflect that shared spirit — and to build something deeper than transactions: a relationship built on trust, belonging, and doing what’s right.

Banking without the bank.

The campaign resonated deeply across Middle Tennessee, driving strong results among both current members and prospective ones. It significantly increased measured awareness of Ascend among non-members while reinforcing loyalty among existing ones. The message of values-based banking led to measurable lifts in website traffic, new memberships, and product engagement — including increases in auto loans, mortgages, and newly opened checking and savings accounts. Proof that when a brand leads with heart, people respond.

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Where I come from.

22nd State Bank

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22nd State Bank, a trusted financial institution in Lower Alabama for over 100 years, initially came to Lewis to increase brand awareness of its two locations in Mobile. We emphasized the bank’s deep local roots and commitment to relationship banking, positioning it as a bank that truly understands the community. Our campaign highlighted Gulf Coast culture—Mardi Gras, local cuisine—and the aspirations of small business owners in agriculture, food, and retail. The campaign led to significant growth in brand awareness, website traffic, new customers, and deposits, showcasing the power of hyper-local marketing in financial services. We've since expanded these efforts to create additional localized campaigns for other branches and regions across Alabama.

IYKYK.

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Always.bank

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With over a century of banking experience, 22nd State Bank created Always.bank as a forward-functioning subsidiary built specifically for the needs of small businesses. To introduce the brand, we developed a launch campaign that positions Always.bank as more than a lender, it's a true partner in the entrepreneurial journey. The campaign showcases the deep, ongoing relationship the bank builds with small business, from the initial spark of an idea to the hard-earned victories that follow. With the line "Let's build something amazing", the campaign highlights both the emotional connection and the practical support Always.bank offers at every stage of business, establishing the brand as a trusted ally for small businesses.

A bank built for small business.

Social Media & Thought Leadership

Our social media campaign powerfully highlighted Always.bank’s unwavering commitment to small business owners, emphasizing a relationship built on trust and support through every phase of their entrepreneurial journey. By showcasing authentic stories and tailored content, the campaign illustrated how Always.bank stands by its clients, offering personalized financial solutions and reliable guidance to help businesses thrive at every stage, from startup to success.

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This year, digital media has really had to stay on their toes — poised and ready to jump at any second. With all the consumer privacy regulation changes, and now, the real slime of the earth deciding to take ad fraud to a whole new level, there’s a lot to keep an eye on.

A [recent profile of ad fraud](https://www.trafficguard.ai/news/digital-ad-fraud-a-profile-on-north-america#:~:text=The%20recent%20profile%20of%20ad,at%20%2444%20million%20per%20day) in North America by TrafficGuard and Juniper Research estimates that within the next five years, advertisers will be losing $100 million a day due to ad fraud. That represents an increase of 125 percent since 2018. They’re also predicting that by 2023, 1 in 5 ad transactions will be derived from fraud. That sounds bad. But until everyone is clear on exactly what ad fraud means, we can’t move on to the solutions. So, here we go.

The simplest way to explain it is this: Ad fraud is when you pay for ads to appear somewhere online, and you think they did — because the reports say so. But no one saw your ad. The data was skewed from fake clicks from bots or click farms.

Even worse, from the vantage point of the brand or agency paying to run the ads, ad fraud is difficult to detect. Before we explain how we’re working to mitigate the risks of ad fraud for our clients (and ourselves), we want to make sure you’re up to speed on all the basic ways ad fraud can happen.

Common Types of Ad Fraud

Unfortunately, the slime balls behind ad fraud are no dummies, and they’ve managed to create multiple pathways to stealing your marketing dollars. The list of digital mediums where ad fraud rears its ugly head continues to grow, but there are several common pathways you’ll want to keep tabs on to start.

Click fraud

This is the most common, simplest type of advertising fraud. Fake traffic is generated through either an automated clicking platform or through click farms. A sign of this would be a higher than usual click-throughs that don’t lead to a sale.

Domain spoofing

Basically, this is impersonating a website. By building a domain and design that appears to be the intended site where your ad would run, the people running these sites can receive payment for your ads, but those ads will never be seen. This is also a common identity theft tactic.

Ad stacking

This happens a lot with programmatic ad placements. It’s when a publisher sells multiple ads on a website, but they’re all stacked on top of each other blocking those behind the top ad. The ads gain fake impressions, even though they’re not really being seen by users.

Pixel stuffing

Similar to ad stacking, only the ads are placed within pixels on the webpage, and they are not visible to potential customers. You end up paying for impressions when there’s zero chance of the ad actually being seen.

Location-based ad fraud

Location is super important to industries such as retail, quick-serve restaurants, the automotive space, and many others. These businesses rely on potential customers being close in proximity to their business. So, in order to take advantage of that, fraudsters fake the geolocations on mobile devices to place them around a specific location, causing brands to deliver ads to people in their target locations who aren’t actually there. With fraudsters taking advantage of all of these weak spots — and this is just a few — it can start to feel like the situation is getting more and more dire, but is it? We believe there are ways around the fake data.

The Ad Fraud Situation Is Bad, But It’s Also Manageable

The amount of digital ad fraud has grown to represent billions of dollars, and naturally, many marketers are now asking, “_Is this still an efficient and effective channel for my brand?_”

Yes, yes it is. As long as you know what you’re doing. While the numbers are concerning on the surface, the amount by which a specific brand experiences ad fraud with their campaigns will vary drastically, and ultimately lies in the hands of whoever manages their media. All programmatic buys are not created equal, and anyone that's running and optimizing a campaign strictly based on their Demand Side Platform’s (DSP) algorithm without strategic oversight is contributing to these crazy high fraud stats. In layman’s terms, allowing a DSP to completely automate the way you’re running ads, taking a set-it and forget-it approach is a risky move.

Back when programmatic media was popularized... Years ago, when programmatic buying was the new and shiny object, many of us were attracted to the idea that we could hit KPIs with the platform algorithm doing all of the heavy lifting. We would push long-tail impression volume to get the largest sample to then prospect from for conversions. Never mind that many of those conversions weren’t actions taken by real humans. And by the way, we paid for those fake events.

Smart media teams today should avoid that approach alone. While algorithms are still a close friend, we can’t put all of our trust in their judgment. In order to avoid fraud and maintain a level of brand safety, we also tap into premium publisher white lists, private marketplace deals (PMPs), walled garden inventory (i.e. Google FLoC products) and first-party data from site tags and customer databases. Our cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) aren't going to be dirt cheap, but the value of what we're delivering is higher and more qualified.

The fact is that fraud exists, and it is undoubtedly present with the campaigns we run. However, we’ve found an approach to buying and reporting programmatic media that involves multiple checks to minimize bot traffic and wasted ad dollars. Here it is:

How To Minimize and Prevent Ad Fraud AND Have Successful Digital Ad Buys:

- Use analytics to examine the traffic our campaigns are driving. Check that the geography of the session matches the targeting, and look for suspicious patterns as related to site traffic, bounce rates, time and user path once on the site.
- Run every programmatic buy through a third-party ad server to get unbiased confirmation that the impressions reported by your DSP match with what you believe was purchased. If they don't, negotiate a makegood.
- Pay an additional CPM to layer filters from [Double Verify](https://doubleverify.com/), [Integral Ad Science](https://integralads.com/), MOAT, etc on top of programmatic buys.
- Apply proprietary exclusion lists and exclusion lists from DSP to avoid known domains for fraud.
- Review site transparency reports from campaigns on a regular basis. This is done in order to confirm that ads are running in brand-safe environments, and it will allow you to proactively identify any suspicious domains so that you can add those to your already existing exclusion lists.
- Always Push to optimize digital campaigns to the most specific KPIs (not just CTR) where possible. While bots can still trick conversion tracking, if you're an agency or marketing partner, when you’re layering actual data from the brand over your reports, you will be able to validate what you’re doing as legitimate.

While the full picture of ad fraud will continue to evolve as the fraudsters learn from their mistakes and find ways around our fixes, the dangers still lie mostly in unmonitored programmatic media buys. So keep your eyes open, and keep reading articles like these to stay ahead of what’s coming. No one hates losing advertising dollars more than we do, so [let us know if we can help](mailto:newbiz@lewiscommunications.com) shed more light on any fraudulent media concerns you may have.

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Ad fraud (and how to mitigate it.)

Whether we’re talking about a big university or a small college, a public college or a faith-based organization, the Big Ten Conference, or the ACC — all of these higher education institutions have one thing in common — every one of them relies on enrollment to survive. 2020 posed new challenges to overcome for the higher education category. Since the pandemic hit, many students have delayed enrollment. The [National Student Clearinghouse Research Center](https://nscresearchcenter.org/stay-informed/) reports **overall enrollment as being down 3.3 percent. Freshman enrollment is down 13 percent, and community college freshman enrollment is seeing a 19 percent decline**.

When enrollment is down, faculty and board members start to wriggle in their seats. Meetings about the future feel different and less anticipatory. And the need for a tangible plan becomes imminent, regardless of the available budget allocated for recruiting or marketing. Not every school has a ton of money lying around to put towards marketing. Which begs the question, what do universities and colleges do when they absolutely have to get more students enrolled without a big budget at their disposal?

What we can tell you from first-hand experience is that, regardless of your budget, you have enough to make a positive impact. You just have to be focused about how you use the money you have. That starts with nailing down the opportunities that will create the most value.

Just like in our personal lives, it’s hard to explain to other people who you are when you aren’t sure yourself. The same concept applies to higher education brands. So, what are the important blocks that build a college or university’s brand identity?

⇢ Digital user experience
⇢ Messaging
⇢ Imagery
⇢ Colors
⇢ Logos
⇢ Mascot
⇢ Merchandise

All of these things are what help students, alums, staff, and faculty build and show pride in the institution they’ve chosen to be a part of. For instance, if the people who have already committed to your school don’t feel connected to your message, colors, mascot, or merchandise, they won’t wear their school t-shirt or plant a bumper sticker on their car. They may not even recommend the school to their circle of friends — prospective students. That’s a problem...but a very fixable one. Your school simply needs to get to the core of who you’re representing.

We had the opportunity to help [Bethel University](https://www.bethelu.edu/) find its own true brand identity. The goal was to dig deeper into who they are as a university and explain it to the public in a clearer, more impactful way. Learning more about their students and faculty was the first place we wanted to start because they ARE Bethel University. The insights we gleaned from those key interviews helped shape the new positioning of Bethel: **Become You**.

Why, “Become You”? We learned that Bethel’s student-base and prospective students consisted of many first-generation college students coming into their college experience from a different vantage point than many other schools. Our approach was intentional — creating a narrative that communicated partnership. Bethel’s faculty would be there, walking alongside students in those formative years of college as they figure out who or what they want to become.

The new Bethel message needed to be felt across every arm of their brand. Students enter a college or a university with excitement and anticipation. They want to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves, and we wanted to help Bethel give them that. So we promoted "Become You" through as many tactics and mediums as the budget would allow.

We redesigned their logo and mascot, chose new fonts and colors, and helped their team create modern merchandise their students, alum, and faculty could wear proudly. We also designed a billboard with the new positioning displayed. But all of those changes are only part of the bigger puzzle. There were more holes to fill in order to get enrollment up...one in particular: their website was losing prospective students.

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Sometimes you’re too close to the problem to see the solution yourself. Bethel needed help to evaluate and identify the possible pain points for prospective students hindering them from enrolling. They have three colleges, and right away, we realized that those colleges being separated into their own websites was an issue. Those siloed pages needed to be integrated into one, united, modernized Bethel University brand website.

After an in-depth brand audit, we also discovered the potential for an even broader footprint for prospective students in the Middle Tennessee area. Our media team put a strategy together to meet potential students on the platforms they were already engaging with and utilized an omnichannel approach, both online and off to put Bethel on the radar of potential new grads all over the state. With a plan to get the word out, next, we needed to redesign and rebuild the website where prospective students would visit to formulate their opinion about Bethel.

Long before a student ever steps foot onto your campus, they will visit your institution’s website. New grads may have heard of your college or university, but it’s unlikely that they’ve ever seen the campus or had a chance to get a feel for what it would be like to be a student there.

Your website will be their first impression. What they experience when they land there will impact how they ultimately decide on whether or not your school will be on their list to visit — which puts them just a few steps away from enrolling. What message will your website send to these new grads? Is your image dated? Is it reflective of the education system you’ve worked so hard to build? Does your messaging accurately represent the ways you empower and educate students who attend classes there every day? Is it easy for prospective students and their families to navigate? If not, you can change that. But don’t start reaching out to web developers just yet. There are a few critical steps to take before you start rebuilding a website.

Rebuilding a website can almost be trickier to navigate than building one from scratch because determining which content is still relevant and migrating that content takes time. We highly recommend an agency partner to help guide you through the process. There are a lot of decisions to make that will directly affect the success or failure of the new site and any paid efforts made to direct prospects there.

Here are some of the big questions to ask yourself before you get started:

- Have you clearly defined your target audience?
- Do you have the right CMS for the type of content your website will host?
- Are there new brand guidelines in place? Fonts? Color pallets? Design standards?
- What is the main goal for your new website? What features should exist in order to meet that goal?
- Do you have a clear path for how users will navigate the site that ladders up to the goal?

After we helped answer these questions for Bethel, we were able to take their 16 separate websites and combine them to develop one fresh, cohesive website centered around personalized features to drive applications and interest in the NEW Bethel. While the website was under construction, we created two temporary landing pages for all digital ads to direct to as part of a data capture campaign to drive enrollment by offering interested students opportunities to learn more.

Bethel’s website became a one-stop resource for all types of students. We added a feature called, “[I Am](https://www.bethelu.edu/i-am)” to tie back to their new mantra, “Become you” which allowed users to select how they identify — as a prospective student, parent, etc. The resulting content was intuitively customized based on their selection. The results were exciting.

Here’s what a Bethel alum, Chris K., had to say about the new site:

>“This site represents the Bethel that I know and love. It makes me a very proud alum. #BecomeYou”

How a newly branded website drove enrollment

The first step to any higher education application process happens online. That’s a fact. With enrollments down since the pandemic, higher education can’t afford to have any hurdles in the way of potential applications on their website.

That’s why the key pages that drive enrollment were our focus for Bethel. Those key pages have all seen incredible growth.

⇨ “Learn More” for the Traditional campus saw a 70 percent increase in submission.

⇨ “Learn More” on the College of Professional Studies increased by 30 percent.

⇨ 300 leads generated for the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Health Sciences (Nearly 10 percent of current undergraduate enrollment).

⇨ “I Am” page visits are up 706 percent

⇨ The “Application” page is up 1,547 percent.

⇨ “Admissions” page viewership is up by 84 percent.

The project started with rebranding and messaging, then it evolved into lead generation and paid media that all tied back to the new Bethel that exists online on their website. Their site now simply reflects who they always were as a University, and the culmination of all of these efforts has paid off.

Any budget is enough to create more pride in your brand

The website rebuild was just one piece of the puzzle we needed to solve to get enrollment up for Bethel, and, like so many small Universities, they didn’t have boatloads of cash to do it. They had to stay focused on the goal and which tactics would best support it.

“Become you” has implanted itself much deeper than simply on their website. Today, their President and leadership team regularly refer back to this positioning, reminding their faculty and students that Bethel is a place where it’s ok not to know who or what you want to be yet. It’s a place to learn exactly that.

Any strides you can make towards creating a brand that your students, alumni, faculty, and staff feel pride in will be money well spent. Your website is important, but only because your people are excited to send others there. Your t-shirt designs may not seem like they deserve much time or energy invested, but if no one wants to wear them, that’s a statement that means more than you might like to admit. Change happens over time. But it starts by staying focused on tangible tactics.

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Case Study: How a rebrand improves higher ed enrollment.

Did we just use the “R” word? The National Bureau of Economic Research isn’t yet ready to declare one, but there’s no doubt that both businesses and consumers have the possibility on their minds. 
Is that kind of anticipation changing consumer behavior? More importantly, should it be changing yours?
As a financial marketing professional, you are tasked with stretching every dollar of your marketing funds in the best of circumstances. At the cusp of a possible recession, the temptation is certainly there to pull back. But, our view is that it’s also the most powerful and cost-effective time to build a deeper relationship with your customer base. 
In the course of our own experience with financial institutions, we’ve identified three steps you can take to maximize the impact of your marketing dollar during uncertain times:

1. Make sure you’re talking to the right people.

Audience Intelligence can eliminate waste and focus your marketing dollars where they can do the most good. We offer our clients an array of proven tools they can use to systematize and optimize the impact of their marketing spend.
How well do you know your audience—today? Be sure you have an updated plan to study the demographic data in your specific market. How has it shifted in the past few years? Where are people living and working today? Have commuter and traffic patterns shifted as workers return to the office part-time, if at all? 
Develop a way to measure and quantify not just the demographics of your community, but the personality traits, beliefs, and fears of those engaging with your brand and website. 
There’s never been a more important time to truly understand—and measure—who you serve, holistically. Develop a measurement plan to reach those in your community with the greatest chance to choose you, and prioritize investing in helping them do so.

2. Develop messaging that can speak to more than one segment.

That kind of efficiency in your marketing spend can yield both short-term and long-term rewards. 
We helped one of our clients, a regional credit union, identify a <a href="https://www.lewiscommunications.com/work/humanize-the-brand-gain-market-share" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">messaging strategy</a> that proved to be deeply meaningful for both older customers and Gen Z, by focusing on their commonly held values and beliefs. 
When the credit union first came to us with their marketing challenge, the ask seemed contradictory. How could we grow traditional deposit investments and continue to reach an older core demographic, while also reaching new, young movers to the area that were arriving post-COVID and for the first time, developing their own financial identity?
Fortunately, we were able to dive into their data and leverage our deep understanding of the customer base. As a result our team was able to concept a campaign featuring these youthful consumers in scenarios that aligned with the values of the older audience. 
The result was a campaign featuring messaging that looked and felt “young,” while speaking to the key similarities in values between younger and older segments. This particular client was able to generate a 22% increase in web traffic for those interested in home purchase in key geographies, and a 117% increase in new deposit value (88% funded by new members).
How can you achieve the same sort of efficiencies for your financial institution? The answers lie in your customer data, and implementing the right tools to help you identify them. 
One of the things we offer our clients are tools that look closely at consumers’ financial behaviors, core beliefs, values and what keeps them up at night. Tracking and trending not just new customer data, but understanding how consumer beliefs are impacted by what is happening around them, can help you develop and curate your own regional identity that feels far less ‘corporate’ than big-box competitors. 
The kind of insights delivered by our tools in turn aid creative teams in developing the kind of powerful, memorable messaging that will resonate with your customer.

3. Be consistent with your efforts.

Turning off the faucet costs a lot more than you think. Because when your marketing efforts resume, you’ll be coming from even further behind and will have to expend more effort and money to return to your desired growth path. 
As tactics are turned on and off, consumers lose confidence that your brand can meet their needs, and they can become more confused in what differentiates you from your competitor. This, in turn, can lead to a slow deterioration of awareness and preference in your market, and can undercut your financial goals of building growth and trust.
In recessionary times, as consumers settle in for more “entrenched” strategies and become less trusting of new entrants into their market, there is substantial risk when your institution delivers an inconsistent brand message. 
Even with consistent product-level market investments, share of search (the bread and butter of new account creation) can continue to decline without a robust, consistent awareness effort, leading to a slow erosion of market position and again, requiring a greater investment to return to baseline levels.
It can be tempting to ‘declare victory’ after reaching a significant milestone or KPI—or to focus on specific promotional efforts that offer more of a quick ‘provable’ than a core brand identity. But there is a real cost to failing to invest in your brand over the long-term, especially in tough economic times. 
The wolf is at the door. No, actually, he’s in the App Store on your customer’s smartphone. The same disruptions that have faced other industries across the American economy are now facing financial markets, with new, digital-exclusive entrants competing for a share of your consumers’ minds and wallets. If there were ever a time for customers to understand your complete brand proposition, it is now.
Creating an on-off approach towards brand presence and identity has not just a cost in the hearts and minds of your community, but it portends a slower, more expensive ramp-up to re-entry.

Economic headwinds create challenges—but they also create opportunity.

A recession has a funny way of giving consumers a laser-focus on what’s truly important in their lives. Changing economic conditions offer new opportunities for you to reduce their worries, and introduce yourself to people who are suddenly thinking about financial situations in new ways.
They may look to increase savings goals, or might be moving to accommodate new jobs. What new services or programs could you offer to demonstrate that you are thinking about their needs?

What about YOUR concerns?

Economic downturns also place new pressure on financial institutions. Everyone in our industry is keeping the blood pressure medicine handy these days. Given the recent challenges presented from the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bank-collapse-crisis-timeline-724f6458?gclid=CjwKCAjwrdmhBhBBEiwA4Hx5gzzogfmegXW_oGXfpAEdmkoU7MtN1RCRxzS5qhA9l23dHPhYy0SmIxoCGgQQAvD_BwE&amp;mod=&amp;psid=WSJ_DSA_GOO_ACQ_NA&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds&amp;ef_id=X9K1UgAAAISPJ1LS:20230412225008:s" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Silicon Valley Bank collapse</a>, investor pressures, and accountability for growth and marketing investment, financial institutions are hardly immune to concerns about economic downturns. 
It can sometimes feel that these pressures are at cross-purposes—how do you manage to meet consumer demand and ease the financial burdens of your customer base, while intelligently facing your own institution’s challenges? 
As costs to acquire new customers rise along with interest rates, brands that can establish a clear position on who they serve, develop efficient messaging strategies and measure their effectiveness, and can measure the value of their brand investment will be well-positioned to build confidence—and gain market share—in their communities during this period of economic uncertainty.
This article was published in the Summer 2023 issue of <a href="https://thefinancialbrand.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Financial Brand</a>'s digital magazine, <a href="https://magazine.tfbinsights.com/view/12598618/82-83/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">INSIGHTS</a>.

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Three steps you can take to stretch your marketing budget during a recession.

Marketing will ad value during a pandemic

While the world is sitting at home, trying to figure out what to do with itself amid and post-COVID-19, brands have disappeared from advertisements on TV, streaming services, social media, podcasts, billboards, and beyond. Some believe it’s insensitive to advertise right now. And others, frankly, aren’t sure advertising dollars will be money well-spent. We get it. But we have to disagree. How does the old proverb go? Strike while the iron is hot? Well, the iron is hot! And the competition is low. It makes sense that brands are looking ahead at the remaining fiscal year and starting to panic. It’s understandable that many are considering substantially reducing their annual marketing budgets not knowing what the next 6 to 9 months holds. But there’s a strong case for pushing forward with a strategic media and advertising presence. Your brand should not go dark. And here’s why:

People are consuming more media and there Is less ad competition

During what would normally be a jam-packed media frenzy due to the upcoming elections and sports seasons, as we mentioned in part 1 of this series, ad-spend is at an all-time low. In fact, ad spending is projected to be [reduced](https://www.emarketer.com/content/how-coronavirus-affects-global-ad-spending) by up to $40 billion for the 2020 fiscal year between Q2 and Q4. Meanwhile, TV, digital, and social channels are currently being more heavily consumed than usual. People are stuck at home with their devices and desperate for a distraction. Even though there may never be a better time to spend money on media, many brands are hesitant during a time of crisis. Yes, of course, you will need to be careful about the positioning of your media messages. But bottom line, your brand should be out there.

“_We have clients that, in the initial couple weeks in March, wanted to get off the air and are now slowly coming back on and readjusting,” said one agency executive_. - [Digiday](https://digiday.com/future-of-tv/tv-advertisings-watershed-moment-it-is-finally-becoming-more-like-digital/).

History says, keep on advertising

Harvard Business School and leading media industry experts, Kantar Media, have both published studies showing how brands that advertise strategically during times of crisis and establish a brand position, create positive long-term growth and recognition, especially smaller brands typically facing steep competition.
Brands that continued to invest in advertising during the financial recession of 2007 and 2008 were able to recover, Kantar’s [study](https://adage.com/article/agency-news/kantar-study-shows-consumers-expect-brands-be-helpful-during-coronavirus-pandemic/2246361/) shows, and their consumer perception ultimately grew stronger over the next 10 years.
Harvard Business School’s studies provided a longer reaching perspective and considered all major economic downturns dating back to the Great Depression in 1929. The common denominator of brands who survived and excelled? Those brands continued to advertise during a crisis or [recession](https://hbr.org/2010/03/roaring-out-of-recession).

_It may seem like a paradox, but recessionary periods actually provide fertile grounds for marketers to grow their brand’s market share if they’re prepared to think long-term_. - Marketing Week



New windows of opportunity for brands

So, we know history says to keep marketing. And the competition is low. But what should brands do with that information? First things first, keep consistent communication with your consumers. Dropping off in communication will only hurt the relationship you’ve been working hard to build with them. The more present your message is, the faster your brand will recover. While media behaviors continue to change, new opportunities are created to reach people that you might not have considered in your marketing mix before.

- Check in on where your customers are spending their time. Adapt your online and social media strategies as the pandemic progresses in each market.
- Adopt an investor mindset. Be aggressive in your approach to adjust marketing spend, and continually track performance in order to readjust and reallocate your money quickly. A shift to online is obvious and inevitable, and companies will need to be both committed and creative about how to use the digital channels available to them.

A study published by the [World Economic Forum](https://www.weforum.org/stories/2020/04/covid19-media-consumption-generation-pandemic-entertainment/) broke down which platforms these four generations are consuming media on today:

- Gen Z Years 8-23: Online Videos, Video Games, Music Streaming, Online TV Streaming
- Millennials Years 25-39: Online Videos, Online TV Streaming, Broadcast TV, Music Streaming
- Gen X Years 40-54: Broadcast TV, Online TV Streaming, Online Videos, Online Press
- Boomer Years 55-75: Broadcast TV, Online TV Streaming, Radio, Online Press

The survival of your brand during and after this pandemic hinges on being present where your consumers are and keeping your message in front of them. Whether your customers are 13 years old and posting videos to [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/en/) all day or retired and fearfully glued to local news, not putting your brand’s message in front of them while their gobbling media up would be a mistake. Especially while prices are down.

In part 3 of this series, we will walk you through how to realistically plan for the uncertainties looming in Q3 and Q4 while sports and politics (hopefully) resume in the “new normal.”

Banking & Finance

From The Blog

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