American Bank Center’s Ad Campaign Capitalizes On Style

Needing a refresh before the full launch of their new brand identity in the fall of 2021, American Bank Center leveraged their signature style with their “Right Place, Right Time” multipronged video campaign.

With banking advertisements targeted to get customers and potential customers to appreciate the full suite of products that American delivers for both personal and business banking, the video campaign builds off the core idea from their 2020 approach of “no-nonsense” banking. The multimedia approach incorporated digital programmatic ads, out-of-home advertising and television spots to reach people where they are.

Prior to the much-anticipated rebrand launch later in 2021, American wanted to refresh existing creative assets for the first half of the year as a cost-effective and updated approach. With the rebrand to come, American needed to seamlessly adapt their actionable takeaways and ladder them toward the new brand positioning to meet their goal of increasing deposits and opening new accounts in American’s service markets – especially in key areas of Bismarck and Mandan. 

Powerful Visuals

For its 2021 banking advertising campaign, American wanted the market to know that the bank is available to customers through a set of innovative digital tools and advisory services. With a digital-first focus in 2021, the bank’s “Advisor Anywhere” approach demonstrates their commitment to the customer – delivered with their unique blend of technology like a big bank, but with the community involvement of a small bank.

The multimedia mix of ads reaching people where they are mirrors the kind of convenience highlighted in the content of messaging of the bank advertising itself, reaffirming American Bank Center’s Right Place, Right Time value. Television ads ran in the Bismarck market area during early morning, primetime and evening news dayparts and incorporated broadcast channels via cable television packages.

Creative Assets

Partnering with Adrenaline, the bank’s ad campaign employs a variety of visuals plugged into the “Right Place, Right Time” conceptual framework, showcasing the full range of banking, trust, and insurance services that map to customer needs states and life stages. Spotlighting how convenient it is to bank with American, the ads employ colorful imagery and footage combined with superimposed type to present banking in a fun yet relatable way. Breathing life into the existing brand campaign, the new bank ads embrace lifestyle photography that is being effectively deployed via the brand’s social and web platforms.

Audience Matters

American’s primary audience is the people and businesses of North Dakota – from cities to towns to rural communities. Culturally, the brand identifies as more Western with a focus on the independent-minded pioneer spirit. The audience is divided between those who skew a little older and more traditional and a younger generation that is grounded and practical, but more innovation-focused. To strike a balance between these two seemingly disparate audiences, creative needs to effectively speak to both audiences with a no-nonsense approach that has become synonymous with the bank’s style.

Video with Impact

In just six months, American Bank Center ended the second quarter with hundreds of net new accounts halfway through the year. Based on performance to date, the bank is on track to nearly double is year-end goal, even exceeding its stretch goal new account openings. Across their service area, the bank experienced double-digit checking account openings in June.

For financial institutions needing advice and expertise in customized brand and marketing campaigns, get in touch with the experts at Adrenaline. 

Adrenaline is an end-to-end brand experience company serving the financial industry. We move brands and businesses ahead by delivering on every aspect of their experience across digital and physical channels, from strategy through implementation. Our multi-disciplinary team works with leadership to advise on purpose, position, culture, and retail growth strategies. We create brands people love and engage audiences from employees to customers with story-led design and insights-driven marketing; and we design and build transformative brand experiences across branch networks, leading the construction and implementation of physical spaces that drive business advantage and make the brand experience real.