Tomorrow marks the beginning of a year-long national advertising campaign that will air during popular prime-time TV shows such as Seinfeld, Good Morning America, The Nanny and 20/20 on national cable and regional networks. It also will run in major publications throughout the East Coast. As the series progresses, other ads will chronicle how First Union brings together banking and technology, banking and financial planning, and banking and insurance.
The campaign is the largest marketing investment in the company's history, as part of an overall advertising budget that more than doubled from last year's $40 million to $85 million in 1997.
"First Union brings together the savvy of a Wall Street broker with the common sense of a main street banker, giving more people more access to more financial services than ever before," said Ed Crutchfield, chairman and chief executive officer. "No one has ever combined the scope of a 1,400 mile banking network with the extensive investment we have made in developing investment products and people. We need to teach people to think -- whatever the financial need is -- 'I bet I can get that at First Union.'"
First Union operates a full-service brokerage subsidiary, First Union Brokerage Services, Inc., and has licensed more than 3,000 employees to sell mutual funds and annuities. First Union also offers investment banking services to its corporate customers through its capital markets subsidiary, which has more than doubled its employment to 1,800 since 1994.
The company is competing head-on with Wall Street, brokerage firms, mutual fund companies, insurance agencies and credit card companies. Capturing First Union's transformation from a bank to a financial services company was the challenge of San Francisco-based Hal Riney & Partners, a leading national advertising agency best known for its work with Saturn Corporation and Bartles & Jaymes.
The first phase of the brand advertising campaign is complemented by product advertising for First Union's popular asset management account, the CAP Account.
To develop the campaign, the agency conducted 46 focus groups with consumers in Atlanta, Raleigh/Durham, N.C.; White Plains, N.Y; Jacksonville and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Conn., and other cities.
Brad Iversen, senior vice president, Corporate Marketing, said the campaign is a first step toward defining the First Union brand as a household name.
"People buy products. They trust brands," Iversen said. "We must prove to our customers that they can trust us to solve all their financial problems. First Union is unique in the way that we combine banking and investment services to provide smart, straightforward financial solutions in the best interests of the customer. That's the core of our brand identity."
Charlotte-based First Union Corporation had assets of approximately $140 billion at Dec. 31, 1996. First Union is a full financial services provider, serving more than 12 million retail and commercial customers throughout the East Coast and the nation.
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