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Radio Advertising Challenge: They Stole Our Name!

Radio bank commercialsA Radio Advertising Advantage member asked for assistance with a thorny client problem.

I’m sharing this with the member’s permission, and I’ve changed any identifying names.

Both the radio station and the client are located what we’ll call “Smallville.”

The sales manager described his client’s predicament as follows.

”The client that I’m wrestling with now is First Federal Savings of Smallville. There’s a competitor in a nearby market that’s now moving into ours; their name is First Federal Savings of Farmington. The two names can’t be much closer and it creates a lot of confusion.  We need a way to get people to first realize these are two different banks and then to differentiate one from the other.”

I went online and discovered the client had two locations in Smallville, and then I wrote this spot.

Imagine that you’re on an airplane and the guy in the seat next to you says, “Where’s City Hall?” How would you respond? Right; you’d have to say, “What city are you talking about?” There are thousands of City Halls. Just as there are lots of banks named “First Federal Savings” but only only one in Smallville. So when someone around here mentions “First Federal,” you know they mean First Federal Savings of Smallville…on Delaware Street and also on Clancy Street right here in — of course — Smallville.

Oops — What I didn’t know was that First Federal Savings of Farmington had opened a branch in Smallville.

That meant I couldn’t say there’s “only one” First Federal Savings in Smallville.

So I had to rewrite to be more specific while still stressing that “we’re the local guys; anyone else is an outsider.”

Imagine that you’re on an airplane and the guy in the seat next to you says, “Where’s City Hall?” How would you respond? Right; you’d have to say, “What city are you talking about?” There are thousands of City Halls. Just as there are lots of banks named “First Federal Savings,” but there’s only one First Federal Savings of Smallville. So when someone around here mentions “First Federal,” you know they mean First Federal Savings of Smallville…on Delaware Street and also on Clancy Street right here in — of course — Smallville.

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