Challenge
The year 2020 brought unforeseen challenges to our entire planet. For the advertising industry in particular, a new reality filled with illness, quarantine, business closures, and pure uncertainty left many searching for the correct response. Our client M&T Bank looked to us for guidance in this strange new normal.
Solution
We decided to lead with what M&T is best known for: authentic stories of customers told in their own words. But rather than focus on the what-ifs that so many businesses were facing, we opted to feature people who were taking control of their own destinies. From customers who found new ways to sell their products, to those who pivoted into completely new lines of business necessitated by the pandemic, each story we told was one of hope and triumph in the face of adversity. Given that our abilities were limited because of quarantining and working from home, Crowley Webb and M&T Bank also had to shift how we’d capture these stories. We opted for interviews conducted over Zoom that were not the best video quality, but still allowed the content of the stories to be the star. And we supplemented these with footage we had captured over the years, as well as video and stills the customers themselves provided.
Results
The campaign, which included 15 unique pieces of content, received a tremendous number of views and an overwhelmingly positive reaction on social media. So much so that a few of the videos were used in broadcast TV. The videos also had an impact internally, as many of them featured stories of M&T relationship managers going above and beyond to get PPP loans processed for their clients.
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