Financial ServicesMarketing Highlights

Gregory CurranCreative Director/Marketing Strategist

Print – Citibank Diamond Preferred Card

• This campaign needed to create a buzz about a special double pointspromotion. The executions focused on how the Diamond Preferred cardmakes earning points fast and easy, so you can earn rewards that helpyou enjoy the things in life that matter most.

Print – Citibank Diamond Preferred Card

Online Support Tool – BlackRock

• We developed this tool to simplify and enhance a function that is keyto BlackRock’s success – serving the needs of their advisor network.The intuitive, handsome and efficient slider tool allowed advisors toprovide the feedback needed for BlackRock to then provide supportmaterials that are more relevant and valuable.

Online Support Tool – BlackRock

Branch Signage – Fleet Bank

• Driven by changes in lifestyle and technological evolution, bankcustomers are visiting their local branches less and less frequently.Fleet addressed this trend by lengthening business hours so customerscould visit when convenient and these posters were part of a campaignto publicize that new service enhancement.

Branch Signage – Fleet Bank

Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

• LPL was an uncontested category leader but their existingadvertising failed to truly convey and capitalize on the firm’s superioroffering to independent advisors. We created an integratedrecruitment campaign that successfully repositioned LPL whileexceeding performance goals by 300%.

Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

Collateral – Fleet College Savings

• The college savings market was a top priority for the investment group at Fleet.This brochure was developed to be used as a sales tool by the investment staffand also as a mailer.

• The piece was carefully written and designed to deliver the desired dual focuson both Fleet’s investment expertise and their high level of service.

Collateral – Fleet College Savings

E-commerce – Splender.com

• Splender was an ecommerce start-up that introduced an innovative newmodel for consumer lending. Consumers leveraged their online spendingpower to obtain superior loan rates, enjoy a better customer experience,and earn points that were used to pay off their loans.

• To introduce this revolutionary idea, we built a beta website that reflectedthe brand’s core values: transparency, innovation and empowerment.

E-commerce – Splender.com

Consumer E-Mail – Chase

• The client’s email acquisition for checking (created by another agency) wassucking wind. So Chase gave our team a chance to improve things.

• Our work crushed the email control by clarifying the offer and simplifying thecall to action. Plus it was way more elegant and engaging than the otheragency’s stuff.

Consumer E-Mail – Chase

Consumer Direct Mail – PNC Bank

• Good creative teams are always in search of deep, rich emotional bonds to aproduct or service. Few subjects offer more potential than that ofhomeownership.

• These executions provide visual and copy cues that allow the audience toproject themselves into the story of a young couple making their first houseinto a “home. ” That connection helps form a valuable and genuine connectionwith PNC’s home owner-directed offering.

Consumer Direct Mail – PNC Bank

• To support the client’s overarching “Smarter Decisions with Fleet”theme, we created an integrated, nationwide program to engageconsumers with that message. The program was built around ayearlong tour by a special branded bus and also included web-basedand printed financial education tools, signage, premiums and asweepstakes.

• Consumers (and the bank) loved the promotion, and it exceeded goalsfor increasing sales of Fleet savings and investment products.

Consumer Promotion – Fleet Life Goals Tour

Consumer Promotion – Fleet Life Goals Tour

Marketing Strategy – Citizens CustomerCentricity Initiative

• The creative team at Merkle helped Citizens “crack the code” on animportant corporate initiative that they had long struggled toimplement – customer centricity. We digested the client’ssegmentation research and developed a recommendation that wasinstrumental in planning and implementing this initiative across thebank’s marketing spectrum.

Marketing Strategy – Citizens CustomerCentricity Initiative

Marketing Strategy – BBVA Preferred CustomerProgram

• In support of a program re-launch, I led the creation of a strategy andmessaging blueprint for the BBVA Preferred Customer Program. Workingclosely with my partner in the strategic planning group, we identified keycustomer segments and developed messaging and branding guidelines toboth acquire and retain customers deemed to be the most valuable by BBVA.

Marketing Strategy – BBVA Preferred CustomerProgram

Marketing Strategy – Citizens Social MediaLaunch

• The CMO at Citizens announced that establishing a social mediapresence was her highest priority. The words were barely out of hermouth when I began developing the strategic roadmap that helped thebank make their first marketing foray into the world of socialnetworking.

• Our strategy helped turn a bank populated by nervous marketers intofirm believers in the value of social media to engage customers withthe Citizens brand.

Marketing Strategy – Citizens Social MediaLaunch

Contact Information

Gregory Curran576 Barrack Hill RoadRidgefield, CT 06877P - 203-438-3419C - 203-837-6000E - g.curran@yahoo.com