IndyMac Bank
The Challenge
How do you successfully launch a new, unknown bank in an incredibly overcrowded category where there’s already a major bank on every corner – and the products are essentially the same everywhere?
The Insight
Consumers were tired of slow-moving, bureaucratic banks that offer excuses instead of solutions. IndyMac Bank originally started as a small mortgage lender (Loanworks) and invested heavily in superior technology and systems for fast, risk-based loan pricing. This same internet-based technology was then transferred to banking and they acquired nine traditional bank branches and introduced both online and call center banking channels. Still, the brand needed a powerful positioning line that would work for both the savings/banking customers and lending customers.
We saw an opportunity to translate IndyMac Bank's technological superiority into an attention-grabbing "Bureaucracy Beware!" campaign that announced an entirely new kind of bank which could indeed deliver better, faster service. Under this new campaign umbrella, we developed newspaper, print, POS, radio, outdoor, direct response and online communications that spoke with one voice.
The Results
In just the first year, we helped IndyMac Bank attract more than $1.5 billion in new deposits. This new start-up bank quickly became the largest savings and loan headquartered in Los Angeles County.