The cost is lowered by scheduling combined shoots for multimedia campaigns.

• Author: Albro, Walt

CONNIE HARKIN

Assistant Vice President/Marketing Officer

Ulster Savings

Kingston, N.Y.

Assets: $727 million, 14 locations

Harkin is a big believer in video advertising. "We wanted to put personality into our brand and with video our brand comes to life."

But creating professional-looking video for media like cable TV can be expensive, she concedes. Ulster Savings came up with the idea of coordinating the shooting of TV commercials with the creation of matching online videos and print ads to save money.

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"The pricey part is the shoot," says Harkin. "So, by doing all the shooting for the different media at one time, you stretch out your dollars and keep costs under control."

The savings bank decided to add the online video since it offered the opportunity to reach people who might not see the cable TV ads. "No other banks in the market had online videos," Harkin says. "It gave us a chance to stand out and also to get our audience more involved with our brand." The savings bank's main office is in Kingston, a town of about 25,000 located on the Hudson River about midway between New York and Albany.

The TV ads as well as online videos consist of interviews with commercial customers discussing some of their financial concerns and pointing out some of the advantages they experienced by working with Ulster Savings. An ad agency did the combined shoot.

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