Adding splash to a birthday bash.

• Author: Albro, Walt
• Position: Feature - Litchfield Bancorp's award-winning anniversary public relations campaign

Bank anniversaries offer a pool full of public relations opportunities. All it takes is careful planning and a little media savvy. Here's how one community savings bank in Connecticut dived in headfirst and came up with handfuls of free promotion and publicity on its 150th birthday.

Is your bank celebrating a birthday? If you observe the event like some financial institutions, the chances are your customers will not notice--or care. Yet, with careful strategizing and planning, a bank can leverage an anniversary into a big public relations opportunity. It can burnish the institution's image and generate a bonanza of publicity, promotion and good will.

An example of an institution that was able to increase its visibility through birthday festivities is Litchfield Bancorp, a savings bank with $142 million in assets, 45 employees and five branches in Litchifeld County, Conn. For the institution's 150th anniversary in 2000, the bank developed a celebration that spawned payback in the form of a score of articles and photographs in weekly and daily newspapers, and two features on the local cable TV channel. Also, there were two exhibits, six community events and seven class at a local high school. All this was tied in to an advertising campaign that included print, radio, and in branch signage and merchandising.

"We more than exceeded our goals in terms of PR coverage," says Mark E. Macomber, president and CEO of the institution, which has its home office in the town of Litchfield, in the state's northwest corner.

The variety and depth of the campaign's publicity and promotion caught the eye of the judges at the 2001 ABA Marketing Network's (formerly Bank Marketing Association's) Annual Ad Awards. The Litchfield campaign received a Best of the Best award in the category of public relations.

Interest in history

Litchfield County is noted for its picturesque small towns and farms near the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. Originally settled in colonial times, the area has a strong sense of community and intense pride and interest in history and historical preservation.

The bank was founded in the town of Litchfield in June 1850 by a group of local townspeople. Its mission today remains much as it was then: to serve the needs of the community and to be an integral part of the region's growth and vitality. The bank's original name, The Litchfield Savings Society, was changed in 1952 to The Litchfield Savings Bank and again, in 1984, to Litchfleld Bancorp.

The bank's marketing strategy is based on the phrase, "Always in Your Corner." The slogan expresses the institution's dedication to the communities of northwest Connecticut, "Litchfield Bancorp recognizes that its own success is predicated on the success of the residents, businesses and organizations within the county," says Macomber. "So, the bank has a very focused and singular mission: to meet the needs of the local communities. As such, we view every point of contact as an opportunity to demonstrate that dedication."

The celebration was an outgrowth of the...