Firstbank's off-beat advertising generates viewer response--and controversy.

• Position: MARKETING NEWS

ABOUT EIGHT YEARS AGO, FIRSTBANK (ASSETS: $14 BILLION), Denver, was a traditional bank doing conservative marketing. Advertising, which was limited to print, radio and television, focused heavily on product promotion.

Then, the bank, which has 120 locations in three states, decided to differentiate itself and to broaden its appeal to a younger demographic by switching to ads that were simpler, humorous, and "more friendly," and focused on brand rather than product, according to Brian Jensen, senior vice president, marketing. The financial institution also decided to expand advertising into nontraditional media, including social media.

One of the first new campaigns played off of recent news stories about private corporate jets owned by large national banks. The campaign involved the use of a small, single-engine propeller-driven airplane to tow a banner over the Colorado Rockies stadium on opening day. The banner read, "This is the closest thing we have to a private jet."

"It was unexpected," noted Jensen during a presentation recently at the ABA Regulatory Compliance Conference in Washington. "It was diametrically different from what we had done in the past." Even the bank's directors were confused. "It was a big change, and there was some concern about the risk."

One video ad showed two friends ordering in a coffee shop. They casually observed that both were wearing identical clothes and ordering the same kind of latte. Suddenly, a man in a suit appears and rips the shirt off one of the men and knocks the latte out of his hand. The other man apologizes and explains that the person who assaulted him was his banker. A tag line says that the FirstBank protects its customers from identity theft.

The ad was so "in your face" and different that the bank received 75 telephone complaints. But, Jensen observed, "The more we used it...