When Berkshire Bank leaders envisioned their new digital banking platform, they knew they had to think differently. The nearly 200-year-old community bank aimed to create a product that would resonate with digital-first consumers while preserving its established brand equity. The surprise came in how quickly they could transform this vision into successful reality.
“We wanted to build a brand with a persona that is bold and innovative, standing out with cutting-edge marketing that balances wit and professionalism,” says Sumant Pustake, executive vice president at Berkshire Bank, which operates in New England and New York. “By offering creative incentives and engaging clients through memorable experiences, Berkshire One redefines traditional banking with a fresh, relationship-focused approach that fosters loyalty and community.”
An optimistic growth trajectory led Berkshire Bank’s leadership to establish a digital arm of its $12 billion operation — Berkshire One, a new digital banking platform that would complement their traditional community banking business while reaching a new type of client.
“Digital banks are growing their deposits significantly, even in this environment,” Pustake says. “We operate in five states — we’re quite spread out. You can only have so many branches, so you must start plugging these gaps in your distribution model. Digital becomes the answer for a company like ours.”
The answer came faster than anyone expected. From initial concept discussions in March to a soft launch in July, the bank’s new digital platform went from idea to reality in just months. And it was built through a coalition of collaborative partnerships rather than outsourcing everything to a large fintech company.
Working with so many niche vendors could have slowed the rollout, but instead, the collaborations fast-tracked it. The accelerated timeline wasn’t just ambitious — it proved transformative, from its bold marketing approach to its hybrid service model that combines digital convenience with the human touch.
New clients to Berkshire One receive a phone call from the digital banking concierge proactively, saying: “Thank you for opening an account with us. Here’s how you can get the most out of your Berkshire One membership,” Pustake explains.
The bank’s digital offering wasn’t just about convenient online banking, either. Berkshire One launched with attention-grabbing benefits beyond industry-leading interest rates. The platform offers its clients benefits like cell phone insurance and streaming service reimbursements.
“In marketing the product, we’ve used messaging like ‘insane perks,’“ says Mark Pedrotti, Berkshire Bank’s director of marketing. “I haven’t really been to many banks who have used the word ‘insane,’ but to us, when we package this all together, this is something very new and very cool and fun.”
Breaking New Ground While Managing Risk
The team faced several potential pitfalls in launching its digital banking platform. Chief among them was maintaining the delicate balance between innovation and the bank’s established brand identity.
“When you go out there and say, ‘we’re launching a new digital banking platform alongside our traditional community banking business,’ there’s going to be a little skepticism,” explains Tom Marks, CEO of Leverage Marketing Group, one of Berkshire’s long-term partners. “Having the launch so buttoned up and really not having difficulties from day one helped us overcome those perceptions.”
Internal buy-in was another critical challenge. Rather than positioning Berkshire One as a separate division that might threaten existing operations, the team took a unique approach.
“We position this as an incubator within Berkshire Bank,” Pustake notes. “While our traditional banking operations continue serving our core community, Berkshire One lets us try new approaches and learn from them. The good news now is the employees are seeing the successes we had, and we are actually implementing some of the similar features we have in Berkshire One across the rest of the company.”
Additionally, digital marketing campaigns coincided with the bank’s migration from one major customer relationship management platform to another. The team also had to ensure their digital security measures were robust while maintaining a seamless user experience. They implemented sophisticated fraud prevention systems that could detect even microsecond delays that might indicate fraudulent activity, while still allowing legitimate customers to open accounts in under two minutes.
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A Fresh Approach to Marketing and Communication
The marketing strategy needed to reflect Berkshire One’s innovative nature while maintaining connection to the main brand. This led the team to develop a distinct identity visually that pushed creative boundaries while remaining authentic to Berkshire’s values.
“We were very interested in messaging around being just a little different than what people have seen at Berkshire in the past and maybe a little bit more inspired to have a little bit of fun with it,” Pedrotti says.
The marketing and creative teams introduced new, bolder colors and new fonts for Berkshire One. “We’ve been talking about adding on to our color palette for years, and this really was the catalyst for us to be like, ‘Hey, all that aspiration? All that improvement to our digital offerings? Well, it’s here right now, let’s do it,’“ he adds.
The team leveraged both traditional and emerging channels, including Reddit’s self-service advertising platform and YouTube pre-roll ads. They also deployed sophisticated tracking and retargeting strategies across platforms.
Bill Cutrer of Seapoint Digital, who led that play, emphasizes the importance of this approach: “There was a lot more sophisticated ability to track people that are starting to engage than there had been in the past…with custom matchlists, more advanced retargeting methods.”
The bank even invested in attention-grabbing physical displays, including a two-sided billboard in Boston that resembled Times Square-style advertising — a departure from the bank’s more traditional marketing tools.
Exceeding Expectations
The results have surpassed initial projections. “We are excited with Berkshire One’s success and the response from clients. Our internal data shows we are doing four times better deepening relationships with clients as measured by per client deposits and product subscriptions compared to other digital-only peers in the United States,” Pustake says.
This success wasn’t just about numbers. Gary Levante, the bank’s chief communication and sustainability officer, attributes it to the team’s focus on creating emotional connections. “We want our consumers to feel something when they think about our brand to build affinity and create stickiness. We want to create an experience with Berkshire One that is unique to Berkshire One.”
Levante says that internal messaging was critical to help employees understand how Berkshire One fit in the broader portfolio and support the organization’s foray into digital-first banking. That included a multichannel communications strategy featuring educational opportunities during town-hall style gatherings and weekly newsletters.
Lessons for Other Banks
For other financial institutions considering a similar initiative, the Berkshire team emphasized several key factors:
- Build strong partnerships and maintain a collaborative approach
- Ensure technology infrastructure is ready before launch
- Create clear differentiation while maintaining brand connection
- Focus on internal communication and buy-in
- Implement robust security while maintaining a seamless user experience
“Before undertaking something like this, be very honest about your organization’s capabilities and readiness,” advises Marks. “You get one shot to be a trusted banking partner. And if you blow it, it’s not going to come around again.”
The ultimate lesson? Success requires orchestrating multiple elements simultaneously. “Think about it as a symphony. Symphony doesn’t happen in isolation — you need to have everything work together,” Pustake says. “You need to have people, partnerships, products, technology, data—all of that has to come together for this thing to work.”