CHALLENGE

Atlanta-based Tucker Federal Bank needed a splash to launch its branded offering, justrightbank.com, in December 1999.

Tucker Federal Bank hired Kilgannon McReynolds, a full-service advertising and interactive agency also based in Atlanta, to develop, launch, and measure the campaign. They were given three goals:
(1) promote special banking offers;
(2) drive traffic to the site; and
(3) get site visitors to open a free checking or money market account.

CAMPAIGN

Kilgannon McReynolds decided to maximize campaign impact by creating an integrated campaign featuring targeted radio and banner advertising. The "Free Checking" campaign was unveiled April 3, 2000 and included a four-week radio flight on Atlanta stations 99X, V-103 and Star 94. Outdoor media, including rotary bulletins, posters and bus tails were added in May, and ran through the end of October. And, banner ads ran April-June on Yahoo!, the Flycast Network, CNNfn, CBS MarketWatch, the Advertising.com network, Access Atlanta, CNN, and on two Atlanta radio station sites. The campaign targeted 18-34 year old adults in the metro Atlanta area, with a secondary target of 25-54 year olds.

A second campaign, to promote justrightbank.com's 7% Money Market product, was launched in June 2000. The 12-week campaign was again fully integrated, featuring radio spots and banners on almost all the same media. To appeal to a slightly older audience with higher incomes, the campaign offered a promotional giveaway of a Palm Pilot VII. To participate, contestants had to visit the justrightbank.com.



RESULTS

These two inaugural campaigns, combining offline and online tactics, more than quadrupled visitors to the site over a 4-month period. The number of online banking users increased 120%. Plus, Kilgannon McReynolds won a 2000 “Outstanding Web Site” WebAward from the Web Marketing Association (www.webaward.org) for its role in designing and developing content for justrightbank.com.

Given the success of the initial advertising efforts, Tucker Federal plans to extend the Free Checking outdoor and Money Market interactive and radio campaigns through March 2001.