Turn Your Community Presence into a Competitive Advantage Big Banks Can’t Match
By Jessica Kendall, Contributor at The Financial Brand
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Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond, built one of banking’s more recognizable community-bank brands without a national budget, aggressive ad spending, or a large marketing department.
Last month, at The Financial Brand Forum, Castilla explained during the CMO Mastermind series how a near-bank failure forced her institution to rethink how it builds trust and engages with its communities from the ground up.
Key takeaways: Castilla described marketing as a core operating philosophy tied closely to trust, responsiveness, and community presence. Her experience illustrates how community institutions can strengthen differentiation through visibility, adaptability, and consistent customer engagement, even in highly competitive markets.
Need to Know:
- Community banks can compete effectively by building social capital and local trust rather than trying to outspend larger competitors.
- Executive accessibility and direct customer engagement can transform frustrated customers into loyal advocates.
- Marketing works best when it becomes part of organizational culture instead of being isolated inside a department.
- Institutions that normalize experimentation and continuous change adapt faster to technology shifts and evolving customer expectations.
- AI gives smaller financial institutions an opportunity to improve operational efficiency without requiring massive scale.
1. Build Trust Through Visibility
When Jill Castilla took over Citizens Bank of Edmond, the institution was in serious trouble.
The Oklahoma-based community bank carried one of the worst regulatory ratings possible. Its reputation had deteriorated. Online searches surfaced negative stories about the institution. And, competing against larger banks with deeper marketing budgets was unrealistic.
Castilla focused first on direct customer engagement rather than rebranding campaigns or marketing efforts.
Years before social media became standard practice for banking executives, Castilla began actively engaging online, responding to complaints, interacting with local businesses, and making herself personally accessible.
Her goal was accountability.
At one point, she even searched social media for complaints about the bank and personally contacted frustrated customers — including people who had posted criticisms years earlier. Many became loyal supporters as a result.
Key insight: According to Castilla, the issue was often that customers wanted someone to acknowledge the problem and respond. That philosophy eventually shaped the bank’s broader operating model:
- Castilla shared her personal cell phone number publicly.
- Leadership worked in visible, customer-facing areas.
- Employees were encouraged to engage directly with customers.
- Social media became a relationship tool rather than a marketing broadcast channel.
The strategy also reflected a larger insight about community banking.
Castilla argued that a bank’s long-term health depends on more than capital ratios or financial performance. It also depends on whether the community believes the institution matters.
That became especially important in Edmond, Oklahoma, where roughly 70 financial institutions compete for customers.
For smaller institutions, awareness will not win against larger competitors. Instead, customers need a reason to feel emotionally connected.
Castilla described this as building “social capital” — the trust and goodwill that compound over time through consistent engagement.
2. Create Experiences Customers Remember
Citizens Bank of Edmond eventually expanded this philosophy far beyond digital engagement.
Facing declining traffic in an aging downtown location, the bank asked a different question: How could the bank become a destination instead of simply a transaction point?
The answer became “Heard on Hurd,” a recurring community concert series inspired partly by programs at other financial institutions.
What started as a local experiment evolved into a major civic event attracting tens of thousands of attendees annually.
For Castilla, the success of the program reinforced an important lesson for financial marketers.
Key insight: Customers rarely build emotional attachment to banking products. They build attachment through experiences, relationships, and moments where institutions demonstrate relevance inside the community.
The concert series strengthened the bank’s visibility, but it also changed customer behavior. For instance, families opened accounts for their children and small businesses developed deeper banking relationships.
Customers increasingly began to view the institution as part of the community fabric.
Castilla emphasized that many of the bank’s growth initiatives came from observing ideas outside traditional banking.
Rather than waiting for industry best practices to emerge, her team borrowed concepts from entertainment, hospitality, and digital communities.
That willingness to adapt ideas from other sectors became especially valuable during the pandemic.
Citizens Bank of Edmond gained national attention for partnerships with entrepreneur Mark Cuban that helped distribute emergency support to small businesses during COVID-19. Castilla credited much of that visibility to years of authentic online engagement and relationship-building.
The bank had already established a reputation for responsiveness and community involvement before the crisis occurred. As a result, customers and partners viewed the institution as credible when it stepped into a larger public role.
Castilla described the bank internally as a “neighborhood hero” brand — an institution willing to show up visibly during difficult moments and advocate for the community in ways customers might not expect from a bank.
That identity helped guide both marketing decisions and operational priorities.
3. Nurture a Culture Comfortable with Change
Castilla repeatedly returned to one operational challenge many financial institutions face: banking historically attracts leaders and employees who value stability.
That desire for stability creates tension in an environment where customer expectations, technology platforms, and competitive threats are changing rapidly. Citizens Bank of Edmond addressed this by intentionally designing a culture built around adaptability.
Employees are expected to challenge ideas, voice feedback, and continuously learn new skills. Castilla cited books like *Extreme Ownership* and *Radical Candor* as major influences on the institution’s management philosophy.
This approach created a culture where employees are expected to take responsibility while also engaging in direct, candid conversations.
Key insight: That mindset influences marketing as much as operations. Castilla argued that effective marketers need a blend of humility and resilience:
- Humility to absorb criticism and customer feedback.
- Confidence to defend decisions with evidence and data.
- Curiosity to keep learning new technologies and platforms.
- Comfort operating in environments where priorities evolve quickly.
The bank also deliberately rotates employees into unfamiliar responsibilities to normalize discomfort and build organizational flexibility. According to Castilla, employees now become uneasy when the organization is not actively improving something. That operating model has become increasingly important as the bank expands digital capabilities, including its digital military banking initiative.
Why Smaller Banks Must Embrace AI
How Citizens Bank of Edmond approaches artificial intelligence differs from the caution-first approach still common across many institutions. Instead of viewing AI primarily as a compliance or technology risk issue, Castilla framed it as a scale equalizer.
Historically, smaller banks struggled to match the operational efficiencies available to larger institutions with massive technology budgets. Castilla believes AI changes that equation.
She argued that AI can reduce some of the traditional advantages associated with scale by helping smaller organizations automate workflows, improve analysis, and increase employee productivity.
The bank began formalizing its AI strategy early, developing internal policies while encouraging executives and employees to experiment with practical use cases. At the same time, the institution emphasized customer data protection, internal education and controlled implementation processes as adoption expanded gradually across the organization.
Key insight: Castilla framed AI as part of a broader organizational challenge: building a culture capable of adapting continuously as customer expectations, technology and competition evolve.
She stressed that institutions need employees who are intellectually curious, adaptable, and willing to learn continuously. In her view, organizations struggle with technology adoption when internal behaviors and decision-making processes remain static.
That philosophy connects directly to Citizens Bank of Edmond’s broader growth story.
Growth Built on Trust and Community
The bank’s turnaround grew from a series of highly visible, relationship-driven decisions centered on visibility, responsiveness and a willingness to engage the community in ways that felt personal and authentic.
Over time, those decisions compounded.
Customers became advocates. Community events became relationship engines. Employees became more comfortable experimenting with new ideas. Technology became easier to adopt because the organization had already built a culture comfortable with change.
This experience highlights an increasingly important reality: differentiation is becoming harder to achieve through products alone.
Bottom line: Most institutions offer similar checking accounts, lending products, and digital capabilities. What customers remember is how a bank shows up during moments that matter — whether that means solving a problem quickly, supporting local businesses during uncertainty, or creating experiences that strengthen community connection.
In Castilla’s model, community institutions stand out when they maintain strong community visibility, accessible leadership, and a clear sense of purpose that customers can see consistently over time. Those qualities remain difficult for larger competitors to replicate at scale.
Scale can buy technology. It can buy advertising reach. It cannot automatically create local credibility, customer advocacy, or community trust. Those are earned gradually through consistent action — exactly the approach Castilla described throughout the conversation.
