Creating an online video: making an ad and posting it on the Web is a low-cost alternative to using commercial television. It is also surprisingly easy and simple to produce.

• Author: Henderson, Jennifer
• Position: Worthington National Bank

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Worthington National Bank, Fort Worth, Texas, recently produced a series of four short promotional videos highlighting everything from banking services to the importance of personal relationships in banking. The financial institution (asset size: $156 million) the videos on its Web site and on YouTube, the video-sharing service.

Thus, Worthington possibly became the first financial institutions in the country to initiate a YouTube marketing program. The bank says the campaign "is building an audience" and has generated conversation in the North Texas community that the financial institution serves.

The bank's goals were to generate local buzz through taking a lighter approach in the current down market. Worthington also wanted to build brand, increase revenue, increase market awareness and, finally, drive traffic to the bank's Web site.

In contrast to television advertising, which often seems unreachable for most community bank budgets, an online video campaign can be a frugal and fun way to connect with potential and existing customers.

Community banks have a long history of establishing unique personalities and using those personalities to create welcoming and friendly environments for their customers. The Web, with its loosened-up, anything-goes, freewheeling mentality, is the perfect place for a marketing campaign that builds on that institutional personality. Not to mention that, from e-mail blasts to video presentations, banks are embracing online advertising and online public relations campaigns as critical tools for communication success.

A production in process

Making a video might seem complicated, but it is actually simple to plan and is cost-effective, especially when compared to other types of video advertising. Worthington's video saved the bank tens of thousand dollars because it wasn't a traditionally produced commercial with purchased air time. Factoring in a generous estimate of full costs, one commercial didn't even cost $6,000, and people can watch it as many times as they want.

The bank outsources all of its marketing to an agency. The agency wrote, organized, art directed and marketed the videos, something that was part of the monthly retainer agreement. The agency did most of the video work itself. What work the agency needed to outsource--mainly production requirements--was negotiated beforehand to keep costs low. The agency went in with a budget in mind, and negotiated until it was able to meet the budget.

Like many good ideas, the online video campaign had its genesis in a brainstorming between the bank's top leadership and its creative agency. Much to their credit, bank leaders were willing to try something new to the banking industry.

Those of us who worked on the bank's video put together the following checklist of recommendations for other financial institutions considering the production of an online video. When moving forward into unchartered territory, it is often helpful to learn from others who have gone before you.

* Make sure your CEO is on board with alternative marketing efforts. Worthington Bank CEO Greg Morse made it clear to his employees that fresh ideas were welcome, whether in traditional forms or otherwise. Rather than having to convince leadership that an online video series could initiate conversation and collaboration with customers, the marketing team could concentrate on producing ideas that Morse and other members...