Umpqua Bank’s New Marketing Campaign: ‘Save Hard. Spend Smart.’

"We believe in the idea that retirement, vacations and optimism are still very doable, and we’re
initiating the ‘Save Hard, Spend Smart’ movement to prove it."
— Umpqua Bank

Umpqua’s microsite — if you can call it that — is about as robust as any you’ll see, with (1) plenty of things to do, (2) lots of ways to engage, and (3) generous servings of product specials. There’s so much going on, it’s a little mind-boggling.

• "Savings Heroes" – Follow along with three different savers as they try to reach their goals. They share their progress in separate blogs.
• "Click 4A Cause" – People vote for their favorite community organization — YWCA, Boys & Girls Clubs and KidsUnlimited — where one vote = $1. The winning charity gets $15,000. Each of the three participating charities tell their stories in separate blogs, complete with an RSS feed.
• "Savings Tips" – About 40 supershort blog posts with money saving advice.
• "Pass the Cash" – Umpqua’s name for the "refer-a-friend" component of the promotion. If you get someone to open an account, they can get a $10 savings bonus.
• "Pass the Cause" – Umpqua will give $5 to the participating charity you choose if a friend you refer opens an account.
• "Register" – People can register and create an account with personalized user-profiles so they can share their own savings tips and stories with the "Save Hard" community.
• "What’s Your Savings IQ?" – A series of questions that makes you think about the different ways in which you could be saving money.
• "Educational Events" – Educational workshops and community events on topics ranging from FDIC coverage to first time home buying.
• "Spread the Word" – Embedded social media networking tools that make it easy to share the "Save Hard" promo with others online.