M&T & a big acquisition.

Action

With increased retail network in the New York City and Boston DMAs, and around 400 newly acquired branches throughout New England, we knew we needed to introduce the M&T brand and develop creative that shows we understand the customers, communities, stakeholders, and, of course, the hundreds of People’s United employees transitioning to M&T. Every city has its nuances and what it’s known for. We had one real chance to develop messaging that resonated with these communities and reflected M&T not only knows them inside and out, but M&T also belongs in them.

Our campaign included broadcast and cable television, OTT, terrestrial and digital radio, out of home (including non-traditional placements like EV charging stations, grocery store checkout screens, bus advertising, unique community placements), paid social, pre-roll video, and programmatic display. However, our messaging changed immensely based on our location and audience. A generic banking sign you might see on a popular street in town was replaced with something more conceptual that related to the location. For example, if you were near the airport, a sign including the M&T logo might say, “This is your sign to book that dream vacay.” Passing by a coffee shop in Boston? You bet we’re asking, “What’s brewing, Beantown?”

The ampersand in “M&T Bank” is another creative device we leveraged to bring certain local sayings, places, events, etc. together which we used as a design treatment across larger advertising placements such as public buses and transit shelters. This tied back to M&T’s community sentiment of “Together we can.”

Not only did our team do research to find out how to create signage that felt authentic to the area they would be placed, but we ensured these were resonating with team members at relevant branches – showing employees early on that M&T values their opinions – a characteristic M&T always strives for.