Challenge

Howard Bank was the perfect opportunity for Gigawatt — a brief that allowed us to utilize the breadth of our strategic and creative talent, combined with a client at a turning point in their brand’s lifecycle. Howard Bank was merging with First Mariner, and wanted a way to bring these two organizations together into a cohesive brand culture, and share that legacy with their customers.

Solution

We were brought in at the ground level, beginning with a comprehensive, six-week discovery phase. This allowed us to craft a brand architecture that resonated with both internal and external audiences. Starting with an internal brand booklet that was distributed to all Howard Bank employees, we developed a rollout campaign which used Howard Bank’s own customers to tell their brand story — renewing their commitment to building lasting legacies, for the businesses, their families and the communities they serve.  We then developed strategy and creative that ran across multiple platforms, including multiple TV, social media and print ads, which drove customers to a custom WordPress landing page that helped us track the effectiveness of the campaign.

Results

In less than a year, this campaign increased Howard Bank’s Aided Awareness among their target market from 29% to 45%. We delivered over 1MM impressions per  $10k of digital media budget, and our work was awarded as Best New Brand Identity of the Year by the Baltimore Chapter of the American Marketing Awards.