Unconventional marketing that worked.

• Author: Albro, Walt

MARKETERS ARE ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for effective marketing campaigns that are innovative and distinctive--especially if they do not cost much.

They might learn a trick or two by studying some of the atypical--and some-times not very expensive--marketing strategies recently employed with success by Danversbank, Danvers, Mass.

Over a three-year span starting in 2008, the bank went from a $1.7 million asset size institution with 14 branches to $2.9 billion in assets with 27 branches. What's more, the bank achieved this growth in the Boston metropolitan area where there are numerous larger financial institutions with bigger advertising budgets--all competing for consumers'attention.

The bank knew that it could not outspend its competitors so, for greater impact, it used a marketing approach that was a combination of traditional and nontraditional. The traditional consisted of TV, billboards, print and radio used in unconventional ways; the nontraditional consisted of inexpensive promotions, such as those done on social media sites such as Facebook.

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Contrary to conventional thinking, the nontraditional marketing was just as effective in boosting brand awareness as the traditional, even though it was less expensive, observes David Munroe, senior vice president and director of marketing. "Because there was little competition in the 'unconventional space,' we naturally stood out, especially for our industry sector."

Skewed demographics

Danversbank is a 161-year-old institution whose headquarters is located in a town about 18 miles north of Boston, it was known as Danvers Savings Bank until six years ago, and none of its branches was located farther than 20 miles from its home base. In 2008, the management decided to expand its commercial capabilities and also its geographic reach to throughout the Boston metropolitan area. One reason behind the change was that the bank's demographics had started to skew toward an older customer, and the bank wanted to refocus on acquiring customers in the under-35 segments.

That same year, Danvers converted from a mutual bank to a public company and initiated an ambitious branch-opening campaign. "Since our upcoming branch openings were largely targeting metropolitan areas, with their abundance of college students and upwardly mobile 20-somethings, we believed that it was crucial that the bank develop positioning that would appeal to those constituencies as well as our core business and consumer customers," says Munroe, who is a...