Streeeeetch your budget dollars: when fiscal support for marketing is constrained, you can generate more bang for the buck by adopting or supplementing strategies such as partnering, co-locating, co-branding and sponsorships.

• Author: Bernstal, Janet Bigham
• Position: Budgeting Alliances - Cover Story

$pending on bank marketing may be bouncing back. A recent ABA survey showed that 68.8 percent of banks anticipated increasing their marketing budget in 2004. Those that foresaw an upturn estimated that the increase would average 7 percent (Bank Marketing Planning Survey Report 2003).

Of course, these statistics suggest also that nearly one-third of banks are not anticipating any increase this year in marketing dollars.

"My budget is still flat, which might have more to do with the banking industry and competition down here, and I'm also being asked to do more," says Jeff Bargerhuff, senior vice president and marketing director for Nevada State Bank in Las Vegas. "But the resources are up, and I am getting two more people."

One of the new people, he says, will focus on branch merchandising in an effort to please an executive committee looking for a more concrete ROI.

"We're doing a lot in merchandising and cross sell, statement inserts, sell campaigns, the takeaways, because they don't cost as much," explains Bargerhuff. "We've stopped doing so much radio too, and are using more direct mail, because it's more cost effective."

So there's still a lot to be said for leveraging marketing dollars. There are many ways to stretch your money to ensure that your brand and message continue to be seen, even in times of budget constraint. Four such strategies are partnering, co-locating, co-branding and sponsorships. Here's an overview of these marketing-dollar enhancers.

Partnerships

Nevada State Bank is the fourth largest commercial bank in Nevada, with assets over $2.8 billion. It has more than 60 branches statewide, 30 of which are located in Smith's Food & Drug Centers. To spread the news in the community of the bank's handy in-store locations, the two entities created a partnership and launched a big "Smith's Awareness" campaign in 2001.

"We partnered from a logistics standpoint to build that top of mind awareness," claims Bargerhuff.

And it worked. Following an initial sweepstakes drawing for a $500 gift certificate, donated by Smith's to all in-store locations, Nevada State Bank tallied over 2,000 new sign-ups.

Today, Smith's continues to place Nevada State Bank ads at the top of their weekly circulars at no cost to the bank outside of the artwork. But Bargerhuff cautions that while partnering can reap tremendous results, it still involves expenses.

"I think there's a misconception that if you cobrand it's more inexpensive, when actually we're just leveraging resources," explains Bargerhuff. "Smith's gave $23,000 toward the [Smith's Awareness campaign] sweepstakes and we spent $182,000."

The disparity in budget sharing comes in part because Nevada State Bank wanted to keep full control of the creative. "In order for Smith's to give money for the radio and TV, they had to go through corporate for approval," says Bargerhuff. "We'd rather not do that."

The bank won three silver Addy awards related to the in-store banks, as a client of the Rose/Glenn Group advertising agency. The Advertising Association of Northern Nevada issued the awards during the 2003 Reno Addy Awards.

One award was for the Smith's Food & Drug Center awareness advertising campaign. Two awards were for television commercials titled "Bad Ideas" and "Road Trip." The commercials feature Nevada State Bank president and CEO, Bill Martin, demonstrating how grocery store branches am a convenient solution to anyone with banking needs.

"The nationals have fairly sterile ads, they can't afford to localize," says Bargerhuff. "We receive all this recognition for our work because our advertising is different than the other banks."

Co-locating

In-store partnership are not new, but...