Online video was a logical choice to promote a new internet service.

PAULA A. MILSTED, CFMP

Director of Marketing

Chesapeake Bank

Kilmarnock, Va

Assets: $600 million; 11 locations

After developing a new online personal money management service, Chesapeake Bank decided that video promotion might be the best way to reach the younger demographic that it was targeting.

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Since the institution was one of the first community banks in the market to offer such a service, Chesapeake wanted to "hit it hard" with a marketing campaign. As a result, the bank created a two-minute animated video that described Money Tracker and explained how it worked. The bank posted the video on its Web site and also on YouTube. It created a link to the video on several local Web sites and also a link on promotional e-mail blasts.

"It helps to differentiate us because we are the only community bank in this market that has online video," says Milsted.

Within the first month, 1,000 people had viewed the video on YouTube and 800 people had gone to the Money Tracker site to try it out.

The bank used an ad agency to create the video. Animation can, in some cases, be more expensive than live shooting, but the bank felt that a cartoon was more appropriate for the target audience and also in alignment with the bank's...