Industry
Services
The Challenge
In 2017, Origin approached Zehnder with a goal: make banking personal again by reminding customers that at Origin, they’re not seen as mere transactions but as important relationships. Technology is critical for efficiency but cannot replace the trust, honesty, and integrity built through face-to-face interaction. As a result, Origin’s cornerstone Relationship Banking campaign was born.
The Strategy
Over 6 months, Zehnder traveled across Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi to spotlight the authentic relationships between real business customers and Origin bankers. No scripts, no hired actors, just intriguing stories straight from the customers whose business aspirations have been fulfilled with the help of Origin Bank.
The finished product: a 28-part webisode series featuring entrepreneurs from all corners of the Southeast. From a custom handbag designer and a famous chef to a cookie baker, a health food entrepreneur, and a golf pro, we interviewed them all.
But the Origin Bank “Return on Relationships” campaign went beyond the typical testimonial strategy – Zehnder also created an online platform for current and prospective customers to learn more and ultimately drive lead generation. Our strategy and digital teams collaborated to build out data and behavioral-driven landing pages, channeling visitors to custom-built pages based on their stage in the buying funnel.
We also used a combination of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram ads to amplify the value of Origin Bank relationships. To make sure we maximized visibility in this evolving space, our paid media, public relations, and social media teams worked closely with platform representatives to implement best practices across our paid, earned, and owned social media efforts.
This involved staying up to date on new social media features and trends like live broadcasting stories, strategic awareness or lead-gen capabilities, A/B testing for ad placements, and emerging technology to consider for future content, like 360 videos and augmented/virtual reality.
The Results
We utilized Google Data Studios to develop a custom dashboard based on a multitude of campaign KPIs, from branded search to video completion to ad recall and web visitation. We also developed custom URLs to track, monitor, and optimize each customer/banker story, separating this data by source, medium, content, geographic location, and ad type.
On the business side, Origin Bank was focused on growing its loans and deposits, so business intelligence metrics were key. Web landing pages included custom business conversions including form submission, email capture, and direct calls to bankers. In the first two months of the campaign alone, the client received 37 calls from qualified business banking prospects.
While many experts believed face-to-face channels were going away, citing big changes in consumer habits and reduced branch traffic, new research confirmed more than half of all consumers (including Millennials) visited a branch and said they preferred to engage with bankers in person. Origin was onto something, and so were we.
Origin’s growth as a result of the campaign was so strong that the bank went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Dive in with Z
Zehnder is always on the lookout for great collaborators. From clients aspiring to drive sustainable growth to fresh talent hoping to join the team, we welcome you to drop us a line. We’ll be in touch!
