THINK CASE STUDY
M&F Bank
Mississippi Bank Goes on Marketing Blitz and Gets Acquired
That was the headline that whisped the inside rumor circles in the Mississippi banking world.
The bank was a case study in turn-around. Just 16 months before the stock price was $3.04 and it hit $8.45 before the merger (acquisition) announcement. Once announced, the stock soared to close to $20.
Here is how we got there.
M&F Bank brought in THINK to do a website review.
The bank had not been hitting revenue goals for many months and knew there needed to be a change.
When THINK came in with the review, we also brought news of the mediocre branding and lackluster advertising. The Chairman asked, “Do you have any suggestions? What’s in the tube?”
Fast. Simple. Local.
We had brought concepts for bank posters, drive thru banners, and billboards that carried with them the gravity of change.
They illustrated a rebrand and a fresh, direct approach to their brand that also leveraged their chief asset: their people.
The posters rolled out of the tube and covered more than half of the enormous conference table. After intent glances at the work and curious eyes at each other, we were hired on the spot. M&F Bank became “Fast. Simple. Local.” that day.
6 Months Later...
Not only was the bank breaking all of their product sales goals, but we ultimately had to shut down advertising for Home Mortgages because we had surpassed capacity to process them.
Common Cents.
THINK locked in media channels and made celebrities out of employees in the papers and on TV. THINK was doing content marketing before it had been named. We created integrated media campaigns on a fraction of the budgets allocated by other banks, and outperformed them.
Our only regret was that we were so successful we lost a client to an acquisition. But, that is what success looks like when you figure out how to run nimble and effective campaigns and ideas in the face of a financial lending crisis.
We made shareholders a huge pile of cash by outperforming all the other banks in town. Even the big ones.
