Eastern Bank is asking high school football teams in eastern and central Massachusetts “What makes your team special?”
Entries, submitted via email, can be videos, photos, audio recordings and essays. All submissions will be posted online at the promotion’s blog for the public to view.
A select number of teams will be invited to send several players to a TV “casting call” in August. One lucky team will be chosen to star in a TV commercial from Eastern Bank this fall, along with a $5,000 grant to support the school’s athletics department. Eastern Bank will also award $500 prizes to support athletics departments in every team invited to the casting call.
The winning team will be selected based on:
- Players’ “camera performance”
- Passion and interest shown by the team, coach and school
- The original response to the question, “What makes your team special?”
- Special consideration will be given to teams that have an Eastern Bank or Eastern Insurance location in their town
Finalists for the casting call, as well as the ultimate winning team, will be determined solely by the bank. There will be no public voting on the entries.
This is the first orchestrated use of social media for Eastern Bank.
Any team serious about winning just needs to look at the bank’s press release to get a clue about what theme a successful entry should stress (hint: “teamwork”):
“At Eastern Bank, our team is focused on working together. We’ve decided to illustrate this by featuring a high school football team, which needs offense, defense and special teams to be successful.”
The winner must be willing to allow the videotaping of two practices in late August. The team’s coach and the head of the team’s school must approve the entry, and each participant in the commercial must provide Eastern Bank with a full release.
Eastern’s ad agency, Conover Tuttle Pace, assisted with the project.
Eastern Financial has around $7.0 billion in assets and 83 branches.