There are 28 different bank brands in the Des Moines area.  Everyone of them has a checking account, a savings account a money market account, home equity loans, car loans and tellers ready to smile and deposit your money.  When management is asked what makes their bank better than the competition most will say their people, or customized personalized service, or nothing.  Some will point to when they were founded.

I recently had lunch with a former bank president who was a client of the agency’s a few years ago.  He left the bank and the bank was sold, resold and sold again.  His bank went from eight in the market to second in about five years.  I’d like to think with our help.  What made him successful was his willingness to be different.  To look at the banking business from the outside and to embrace creativity.

We’ve watched the contraction of the banking business in this market and the expansion of brands.  And once again there’s a giant opportunity for a bank president to make a name for their bank.  This market has become tame from a marketing perspective.  The big banks aren’t marketing effectively because they don’t have to.  The medium sized banks aren’t because they may be afraid to.  The small banks aren’t because they don’t have the budget.

Doesn’t this seem like an opportunity?  We think so.  So we’re calling all banks that want to succeed.  We’re looking for you.  If you’re tired of being just another one of the 28, now’s the time.  Be contrary.  Be bold.  Be smart. Compete. But do it now.

Is there an category more subject to buzz du jour than the advertising industry?  We belong to an international network of advertising agencies called ICOM.  It provides us with learning opportunities about best practices in our business.

At a recent meeting, we listened to a professor from a vaunted but unnamed university spend her hour making the case for how newspapers are a thing of the past and will undoubtedly be totally replaced by the Internet.  She made a very compelling argument.  Circulation down, readership down, prestige down…down, down, down.  In fact, she said, the Internet may be the death nail to all conventional media.  Whoa.

So after her hour was up, she had most of the room convinced.  Until one ICOM member named Peter Krivkovich asked this question:

“Can you name one national consumable brand that’s not an internet brand, that has been built entirely on the Internet?”

The room fell silent.  The professor fell silent.  After having asked that question repeatedly, I have yet to have anyone answer it.  Maybe there is a brand out there, but no one seems to notice what it is.

We are fans of the Internet, students if you will.  We use it, buy it, advertise in it, develop content for it.  And while it opens up a whole new world for marketers and advertisers, we are totally convinced that you still have to block and tackle to build a brand.  You still have to use media that reaches out and interrupts. You still have to tell your story in compelling ways.

So while the Chicago Tribune is in bankruptcy, and the New York Times second mortgages its building, we think the death of newspapers and conventional media is greatly exaggerated.

If you have an answer to Peter’s question, we’d love to hear it.