Take this poll and guess what the annual marketing budget is for this $1.9 trillion beheomoth — including branding, advertising and community support — Don’t forget: BofA sponsors the U.S. Olympic team, the Dallas Cowboys, NASCAR, etc.
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Earlier this year, The Financial Brand reported on Citi’s record-setting $400 million sponsorship of the New York Mets stadium.
Now, not to be outdone, Bank of America is after an even bigger deal to sponsor the New York Yankees stadium. Any sponsorship of the highly-venerated New York Yankees stadium is expected to eclipse the Citi/Mets deal, worth $20 million a year for 20 years. That will likely place the B of A sponsorship at around half a billion dollars.
Such astronomical sponsorships are increasingly becoming the norm among financial institutions. Recently, Barclay’s also climbed into the stadium sponsorship stratosphere with its $400 million, 20-year deal for the New Jersey Nets stadium.
Key Fact: Citi and Barclay’s have lost billions of dollars in the last year. B of A, on the other hand, has continued posting positive net income into the billions over the last three consecutive quarters — arguably one of the toughest periods ever for financial institutions.
Even if you view such sponsorships as an unnecessary extravagance, at least B of A’s sponsorship of the Yankees would be on-brand for the bank. After years of floundering around with an implausible service promise, “Higher Standards,” Bank of America is now embracing its patriotic name and building a brand around all things American. Among the bank’s other sponsorships:
The Panthers don’t really fit B of A’s portfolio, but the bank is “buying love” in its own backyard, Charolette, North Carolina, where the bank is based.
Reality Check: These sponsorships aren’t just about the branding and marketing opportunities they create. There’s also the personal motivations of executives who want luxury boxes at America’s prestige sports venues. Often, the rationalization goes something like this: “We can use those skyboxes to close big, important deals.”
At least in B of A’s case, they are maximizing their sponsorships through affinity products and services, such as debit cards featuring people’s favorite sport’s icons.
Last week, Bank of America launched Morris on Campus,™ Life According to an Upperclassman™. According to the bank, the promotion is designed to “educate and empower students to take control of their finances and bank with confidence in this new academic year.”
Unlike other Gen-Y online promotions, “Morris” is not the product of a “spokester contest,” but is instead a 23-year old actor from Teaneck, New Jersey, the bank hired for the promotion. You can view his MySpace profile here, where he goes by the pseudonym “Lo Profile.”
The campaign includes a microsite embedded within the B of A mastersite. The microsite includes a series of 7-8 video webisodes, some tips, tools and a glossary. Here are the highlights:
13 financial tips (although #2 and #13 are the same)
7 dorm room tips (although #1 and #7 are the same)
9 food tips
7 class tips
5 random tips
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There’s a contest to submit your own tips too, but you have to be 18-25 years of age and going to college. Five finalists will be selected by B of A late next month. Each finalist will receive $5,000, then compete for an additional $25,000.
The finalists will have 14 days to use social media tools — including video, PowerPoint, third-party endorsements and a mandatory essay of 500 words (or less) — to argue why their tip is the most helpful and relevant their peers.
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A 65-page guide to basic financial services. Chapters include budgeting, checking, savings, investing, online banking, bank fees, credit cards, identity theft, a quiz and a glossary that’s 10 times better than the one at the On Campus website.
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Includes CampusEdge Checking, with a check card, online banking and a Stuff Happens card that gives you a one-time bank fee refund, no matter what.
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B of A will also be taking its On Campus promotion on tour, with stops at colleges and universities across the country in coming weeks.
This is at least the third high-profile social media initiative from Bank of America this year. In April, B of A launched an online competition to support its Olympics’ sponsorship called America’s Cheer. And in June, B of A introduced Mo Rocca on Banking. (Note: there are blimps in both the Mo Rocca promotion and the Morris campaign. What’s up with that?)
You can read B of A’s press release about Morris on Campus here.
Here are this week’s branding and marketing stories of interest from around the web.
Click hotlinks for the whole story.
Texas Twins: Similar Gen-Y programs raise tough questions
What’s Behind All This Growth? Credit unions add 1.6 million members
Reaping ‘Rewards’: Bancvue checking product boasts $5.5 billion in deposits
Bee Good: Credit union serves free honey-flavored ice cream to save the bees
How To: Making a powerful financial brand
Driving Sales: Auto loans are hot as car makers cut leasing programs
2nd Generation: Bank switches names back to ‘Generations’
Pledge of New Allegiance: Illinois bank to become ‘Legence’
MembersProject.com: AmEx introduces contest for charitable ideas
School of Rock: CU’s financial literacy program rocks high schoolers
It’s a Wrap: BofA draws attention to wealth management with NYT ad wrap
Vishing: Are you ready to protect people from this latest security threat?
Op Ed: LA Times bemoans loss of marble and mahogany branches
Hawaiian Cafe: Credit union puts in a sofa and a “gourmet coffee bar”
Bank of America recently announced that it was introducing its first ever NASCAR-themed ad.
The 30 second spot titled “Who’s Your Driver?” features footage of a number of top NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers whose likenesses are available on NASCAR Banking check cards and credit cards. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Truex Jr., are featured in the new ad and are among the most popular drivers featured.
This ad is Bank of America’s third major campaign this year focused on sports fans, including deals with the Olympics and Major League Baseball (press release here). The brand has been very focused on upbeat, uplifting messages like “America’s Cheer 2008” (previous coverage from The Financial Brand here).
This latest spot starts with the line, “This is America, and you have the freedom to cheer.”
B of A has a good promotional tie-in with its co-branded debit and credit cards. At a special section of its website called “NASCAR RacePoints,” the bank details how you can earn points and “burn” them using their plastic products. You earn one RacePoint for every $4 in net retail check card purchases, and can spend them on exclusive NASCAR experiences, race tickets, NASCAR licensed products and goodies like flat panel TVs, iPods and much more.
Use the NASCAR card, get NASCAR stuff. “Earn and burn.” It’s a nice, self-reinforcing promotion.
Bank of America first launched its NASCAR program in 2007. As the “Official Bank of NASCAR,” B of A can offer NASCAR themed checks, debit and credit cards. B of A calls it ‘NASCAR Banking.’
“Our affinity products are some of the fastest growing products we have at the bank. And the NASCAR products are in the top 10 of those,” says Mike Hargrave, an executive with Bank of America’s NASCAR program.
It’s worth noting that B of A is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the heart of NASCAR country.
The NASCAR Banking ads, produced by worldwide advertising behemoth BBDO, won’t be running nationally until July.
You can read the full script for the spot on page 2. You can read B of A’s full press release here.
Bottom Line: NASCAR is on-brand for B of A. They should be the sponsor of American traditions like NASCAR. After all, their name is Bank of America. They’ve sponsored the Dallas Cowboys — “America’s Team” — for over two decades. The Olympics. MLB. And this announcement from today: the U.S. military. All things American. This is a much better, much more believable brand direction than “Higher Standards.” Two thumbs up.
Key Takeaway: Affinity products are a great way to engage people with a financial brand and counteract the dull, stodgy and boring image associated with the average bank or credit union. What brands can you link with? (Note: You don’t have to be a major brand, nor do you have to pick a major brand to partner with to succeed with this strategy.)
When Bank of America merged with MBNA back in 2006, they had a big internal event for bank executives. Two of them got up on stage and performed a remade version of U2’s hit single, “One.”
The song was rewritten to commemorate and celebrate the merger. You can read all the lyrics on page 2.
The duo — one guy singing and another guy on guitar — gave a pretty good performance. The singer, Ethan Chandler, a Manhattan banking center manager, is amazingly earnest and sincere. It’s pretty darn good, unless, of course, you’re a U2 fan, in which case you may equate it with musical murder.
The video has been viewed over 438,630 times at YouTube, so sorry if you’re one of them and you’ve seen it already. Here’s the video:
Go figure. A remake of a song about a bank merger sung by a bank executive. In a white shirt and tie. On about the dullest stage you can imagine. And it was viewed almost half a million times.
The party poopers over at Universal Music Publishing Group didn’t care for it. They promptly fired off a cease-and-desist to B of A, claiming copyright infringements. This is kind of surprising, since it’s obviously a gag, and meant for an internal audience only. UMPG’s legal maneuver must have failed though, since the video is still up.
You can read the New York Times story here.
Mo Rocca, a comedian and political satirist of some success, plays a man-on-the-street character in one of Bank of America’s latest promotions, “Mo on Banking.”
In a series of online videos at a microsite, Mo reports wryly on banking topics, including this tidbit from the intro video:
Yep, he said “internets.”
Here’s one of the videos to give you a better idea:
Throughout the series, Mo muses suggestively, and dupes people on New York streets with risque interview questions:
You’d think people would respond to any attempt to make banking less dull (i.e., more fun). As Matt Davis, the CU Warrior recently said, “‘Fun’ works and ‘controversy’ works.” But maybe in this case, B of A’s campaign isn’t clicking with everyone?
One person, a blogger named B.L. Ochman, complained, “I don’t want a funny bank. I also don’t want sexual innuendos in my bank’s advertising. I want adults in suits to take my money seriously.”
Reality Check: Let’s be honest. When it comes to your personal life (not your professional life as a financial brand builder), banking is pretty boring. For most of us, it’s a chore we’d rather not do.
Key Questions:
You can view five different videos at a YouTube page the bank created to support its Mo-promo.
Each segment concludes with the campaign’s catchphrase, “Bank the way you live.”
“Mo Rocca on Banking” joins “America’s Cheer 2008″(previous coverage from The Financial Brand here) as an example of B of A’s recent online marketing focus.
You can read the press release B of A used to alert bloggers about “Mo Rocca on Banking” here on page 2. The bank apparently didn’t use any traditional media or normal PR venues to support the initiative.
“Aloha” Means Goodbye: Aloha Airlines FCU needs a new brand after airline collapses
More “Opportunities”: B of A launches next phase of its ad campaign
Idea Bank: B of A teams with MIT to create a banking lab, “innovation engine”
Sexism Doesn’t Sell: Aussie bank pulls its ads from ‘sexist’ TV show
Banco El Diablo: Devilish promo at Spanish bank
Mini Whitepaper: “Major Trends in Bank Branch Design”
Growing Platinum: Credit union aims for highest LEED standard with new branch
Piggy Bank Robbed: $100K boosted from Houston Police Credit Union (off topic)
The Beijing Games are scheduled to start four months from now, but that’s not stopping Bank of America from jumping on the bandwagon early.
The effort centers around an online video contest to see who has the best Olympic cheer. “America’s Cheer,” as the campaign is called, includes a microsite, Facebook page and Flickr set.
Reality Check: This is Bank of America’s first step into the deep end of social media’s waters. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
Here’s one creative entry to kick things off:
Microsite: America’s Cheer 2008
Flickr: Static images of entries
There’s also a cheesy 4:39 American-Idol style video for the competition. The only real highlight is the contestant who yells “Whoo hoo!” at the 2:15 mark.
Regarding the controversy surrounding China’s hosting of the Olympics, B of A says its “sponsorship is actually focused on the U.S. athletes, rather than the Games themselves. Our support is independent of the venue where they compete.”
This year’s Olympic campaign will cost B of A an estimated $35-40 million, said Joe Goode, corporate spokesman for Bank of America, in USA Today.
Key Question: How will the public react to corporate sponsorships in the Beijing Olympics…especially once the games are underway and these sponsorships will be much more conspicuous?