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PGB-Branding Campaign

Double Digit Asset Growth Every Year | 15% CAGR in Assets Since 2014

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First Commonwealth FCU

MVV process unified employees around new culture and direction

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Huntingdon Valley Bank

New branding re-energized the bank and led to successful market cap

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New Jersey Economic Development Authority

Significantly grew inquiries with a bold campaign, enhanced media options, and online tools

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Penn Mutual

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Federated Hermes

Federated’s site became a stronger marketing asset, resulting in increased lead gen and engagement.

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PNC Bank

Drove 80% of the bank’s new Demand Deposit Accounts while only handling marketing for 8% of PNC’s total branch locations.

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Deposit Acquisition

Achieved 224% of deposit acquisition goals at a marketing cost equal to 14 basis points in four weeks

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CASE STUDY

Peapack Gladstone Bank –Branding Campaign

 
 

RELATIONSHIP

In 2014, Princeton Partners became agency of record for Peapack Gladstone Bank, a retail community bank with a strong focus on growing its wealth management business. We introduced a new branding and a new brand strategy based on the idea that “all banking should be private banking,” a positioning that highlights how PGB’s high-touch customer service approach informs everything they do. We deploy the brand positioning in all marketing communications programs to support the growth of both their retail and wealth management businesses.

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SITUATION

Peapack Gladstone Bank operates in the highly-competitive “wealth belt” of New Jersey during a time of community bank consolidation. The national and superregional banks dominate regional market share in deposits and loans.

Non-banks are aggressively competing for small business customers and more tech-savvy retail customers. Peapack has modest marketing budgets and must make every dollar invested work to produce measurable returns.

BRAND MARKETING SOLUTION

Princeton Partners has put in place a strong visual identity and messaging that reinforces the ideas of integrity, trust, and client-focused service delivered by values-driven professionals. Deposit or loan acquisition campaign success leverages: a) the brand to elevate the value of the offering; and b) sophisticated data-driven marketing, geo-targeting and digital advertising and direct marketing to drive leads and new customers.

RESULTS

Awareness of Peapack Gladstone Bank has grown close to the levels of its much larger national rivals including Bank of America. Assets, loans, and deposits are growing at double-digit rates every year. Deposit acquisition campaigns are predictable and deliver new deposits at a marketing cost under 17 basis points per campaign.

 
 
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CASE STUDY

Huntingdon Valley Bank

SITUATION

Huntingdon Valley Bank (HVB) is a mid-sized community bank serving the people of Huntingdon Valley, PA. They have a reputation for offering quality financial products and excellent customer service. This is particularly true in their mortgage department where they pride themselves on taking the headaches out of the home-buying process by making it easy and ensuring that every closing is ready, on time and stress-free.

When they approached Princeton Partners, HVB was preparing a market capitalization. However, the bank's leadership team felt that, until the bank clearly defined its purpose and values, it could not unleash its potential for growth.

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BRAND MARKETING STRATEGY

Using our proprietary UBI Branding Process, we articulated the bank's unique purpose: to bring joy to customers through banking. We worked with the leadership team to clearly define the values that would help the bank meet that goal. The values were first communicated internally in powerful, creative, and engaging ways. With employees committed and behind the program, we then aligned all elements of the brand to the purpose.

 
 
 
 

RESULTS

HVB is now "The Better Experience Bank" with a new logo, website, signage, and collateral and a whole new way of operating internally. The leadership team credits the new branding with helping them re-energize the organization, excite investors, and set a foundation for solid growth for years to come.

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CASE STUDY

First Commonwealth FCU

SITUATION

Founded in 1959, First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union is one of largest credit unions in Pennsylvania. The new CEO assessed that the organization’s employees needed to be engaged in way that would create a culture shift from one that avoided change to one that embraced innovation. She also wanted to ensure that all levels of the organization, from the board and leadership team, to middle management, to front-facing and back-office support staff became unified behind a clear and compelling mission, vision and set of values that would drive the behaviors that resulted in sustainable, scalable success. The CEO brought in Princeton Partners to lead the development of the solution.

 
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SOLUTION

Princeton Partners led all stakeholders through our proprietary Mission, Vision, and Values (MVV) research and development process. We surveyed and interviewed staff, analyzed personality profiles, and conducted exercises with over one hundred people including members of the board, the leadership team, middle managers, and the client facing and supporting staff. We heard their concerns, their suggestions, and their goals for the future of the credit union. We then helped them craft an MVV solution which clarified what the credit union stood for, what they wanted to achieve, and how they would get there. The process unified stakeholders and got them all moving in the same direction—forward.

RESULTS

Management, employees, and members felt a renewed excitement about First Commonwealth’s mission and future, rallying behind their new mantra: “Empowering the pursuit of financial happiness” with a focus on advancing financial wellness for their members and the entire Lehigh Valley. Employees felt valued and empowered because management enabled them to take a greater role in the credit union’s focus, operations, and future. Management was able to execute their strategic plan and implement significant customer-facing innovations on a faster timetable with the support of all its stakeholders. New financial centers were introduced as centers for financial education, ITMs with live video associates were launched, and new mission-focused programs gave middle managers and all staff opportunities to contribute their talents. First Commonwealth’s internal energy and outward-facing visibility and impact gained momentum because of their commitment to real people. They were named Pennsylvania’s #1 Credit Union by Forbes in 2019.

 
 
 
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CASE STUDY

PNC Bank

 
 

SITUATION

PNC Bank offers complete commercial, retail, and investment banking services to over five million customers. The bank hired us to turn around underperforming branches and open new branches across eight states.

 
 

BRAND MARKETING SOLUTION

Our strategy was to make PNC, a giant bank, feel like each community’s local bank. For every new branch, we assembled a community guide that informed bank staff about local leaders, organizations, events, and media outlets. We then created pre-opening plans, Grand Opening Celebrations, and sustaining promotion programs, tailored to each location.

RESULTS

Drove 80% of the bank’s new Demand Deposit Accounts while only handling marketing for 8% of PNC’s total branch locations.

 
 
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CASE STUDY

Federated Hermes

SITUATION

Federated Investors (now Federated Hermes, Inc.) is an investment manager headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, which manages over half of a trillion dollars of customer assets. Its website experienced ad-hoc growth over the years and had become confusing and difficult to navigate. Federated needed a firm with web development expertise to review its site and provide recommendations to improve the site’s performance and user experience.

SITUATION

Our team of experts – with backgrounds in digital development, research, business consultancy, social media, and creative development – performed technical and UX audits that provided ways to improve the site’s usability, functionality, and SEO. We also performed a brand review that showed ways that Federated could present its brand more consistently and effectively. This included a competitive analysis which revealed how Federated’s competitors were engaging customers through their digital properties. Importantly, we showed how these competitors had structured their sites to communicate and reinforce their brands and missions and offered recommendations on how Federated could do the same.

RESULT

Our report provided a critical roadmap for Federated Investors to gain greater value from its website. By improving the technology and UX, users would have an easier time finding the site and a better experience. By imbuing the site with more of the brand value and character, the site became a stronger marketing asset, resulting in increased lead gen and engagement.

 
 
 
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CASE STUDY

NJEDA

SITUATION

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) is an independent State agency that finances small and mid-sized businesses, administers tax incentives to retain and grow jobs, revitalizes communities through redevelopment initiatives, and supports entrepreneurial development by providing access to training and mentoring programs. It is an important partner in the economic growth and development of New Jersey.

Many businesses either were unaware of its existence or misunderstood its purpose. It gets headlines when it provides multi-million tax incentives or loans for initiatives such as the redevelopment of Camden, but little to no recognition for its efforts supporting small and medium sized businesses.

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BRAND MARKETING SOLUTION

Princeton Partners created a new brand for NJEDA that explicitly ties it to the success of businesses it has helped. This is captured in the tagline "EDA Was Here." Successful small and medium sized businesses became the proof points for EDA's ability to positively impact business growth.

Princeton Partners also initiated a change in media strategy. While maintaining a presence in print, digital was added to the mix. This allowed for better targeting, tracking of results, and testing of specific messages for effectiveness and response.

RESULTS

Inquiries grew significantly. Princeton Partners built on this success by developing online loan decision tool, which took what had been a complicated loan process and simplified it for potential applicants. This tool was shared extensively and organically, increasing awareness of EDA and driving more inquiries.

 
 
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CASE STUDY

Penn Mutual

SITUATION

Penn Mutual is one of the oldest life insurance companies in the United States. However, it lacks brand recognition because it goes to market through insurance agents and doesn’t do any consumer-facing advertising. This led to two issues:

  • Its agent base was aging, and younger people weren't becoming agents;

  • Penn Mutual's customer base was also getting older, and younger people were

    not as attuned to buying life insurance.

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BRAND MARKETING SOLUTION

Princeton Partners recommended that Penn Mutual take greater advantage of its partnership with Collegiate Rugby by using innovative, memorable event marketing that encouraged sharing on social media.

We used Wasabi3D, a company that Princeton Partners created to increase word-of- mouth marketing at events, to develop and install 2D custom Penn Mutual canvases that, when photographed, would make a subject of the photo appear as if they were in a 3D environment.

Game attendees were invited to have their picture taken on the canvases and share across their social networks. The added benefit was that Penn Mutual was able to capture their information and direct career and product information to them.

RESULTS

This effort grew Penn Mutual's pool of potential broker candidates. It also provided the opportunity to begin conversations with the students about the longer-term benefits of life insurance and the role it can play in well-thought financial plan.