Financial Services: "MONEY AND MAIN STREET" Promo / PR Ad by Starcom Usa

Category: Best Use of Integrated Media
Advertiser: BANK OF AMERICA
Product/Service: FINANCIAL SERVICES
Date of First Appearance: Apr 1 2009 12:00AM
Entrant Company: STARCOM USA, Chicago, USA
Senior Vice President: Kristina Lutz (Starcom USA)
Senior Vice President: Amy Harris (Starcom USA)
President: Chris Boothe (Starcom USA)
Executive Vice President: Tom Weeks (Starcom USA)
Senior Vice President: Brenda White (Starcom USA)
Vice President: Linda Bocage (Starcom USA)
Vice President: Shaun Farrar (Starcom USA)
Producer: Rachael Scholten (Starcom USA)
Senior Vice President: Judy Bahary (Starcom USA)
Media placement: TV Program - CNN Money & Main Street Specials - 1 April 2009
Media placement: Online Broadcast - Facebook - 1 April 2009
Media placement: Print Integrations - Money, Fortune, Time, Real Simple - 1 April 2009
Media placement: Web Portal - Cnn.com/moneyandmainstreet - 1 April 2009
Media placement: Custom Information - Handouts In Bank Of America Branch Locations - 1 April 2009

Results and Effectiveness
Despite the economic crisis and negative press, our programme drove perception and attitude lifts well beyond our +3% goals: • +13%: BAC helps inform and educate consumers to make smart financial decisions • +11%: BAC provides guidance toward consumers’ financial well being • +10%: BAC helps customers make the most of their money • +10%: BAC is a place to seek advice or information on finances • + 8%: BAC wants customers to feel financially secure • + 8%: BAC provides the innovative tools that make me make smart financial decisions (Source: Ninah Marketing Plan Lab, November 2009)

Creative Execution
Consumers Find Relief at Money and Main Street. We partnered with Time Warner (TW) to create an original, minimally-branded editorial platform called “Money & Main Street” that – for the first time ever – united 13 TW media entities under a single banner. We helped produce a series of live, primetime specials hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Ali Velshi and other experts. These specials were conducted in a “town hall,” community gathering-style that invited experts’ perspective on financial issues and culminated in relatable advice and actions for viewers. We also structured a TW/Facebook partnership so consumers could watch the TV specials live via CNN.com and interact in real-time with the panel, initiating conversation between consumers, their friends and experts. We enlisted Money Magazine’s editor-in-chief to hold discussions with consumers in BAC branches to inform the content of three custom-created guidebooks that ran as editorial in Money, Fortune, Time and Real Simple magazines.

Insights, Strategy & the Idea
Financial news were suddenly on the front page following the collapse of several banking institutions in late 2008 – and little of it was good. Nonstop media coverage gave the financial community no time to regroup between news cycles, and the pervasive anxiety had a destabilizing effect on global markets. People blamed financial institutions for “the mess,” and the rise of social networking allowed consumers to pass information on whether or not it was true or relevant. Our strategy was to listen to consumers’ concerns and then provide them with the means to take their financial well being into their own hands. We would establish Bank of America (BAC) as a financial partner that understands consumers’ need for education, tools and solutions. We chose to integrate communications into the media that consumers trust and consider to be “unbiased” and “proven winners” to get their financial news and information.