Shaping a New Detroit Legacy

A Marketing Story by Truscott Rossman about TCF Bank

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TCF Bank

Increase Brand Awareness

Challenge

In the run up to the Chemical Bank merger with TCF Bank, Truscott Rossman was asked to help shape the bank’s growth story. The merger would create the nation’s 27th largest bank and the new enterprise would purchase the naming rights to the Cobo Center — a historic change to Detroit’s legacy. TCF Bank needed help not only building upon a golden image in Detroit, but also sidestepping potential landmines related to the Cobo move and name change. TR was tasked with helping to develop storylines, craft and execute the media strategy and develop event plans — but our relationship became so much more.

Solution

As TR partnered with the TCF team, we helped them develop and leverage media relationships to support their goal to drive meaningful stories to target audiences in Michigan and beyond. Our efforts changed the narrative on what a bank means for the communities it serves. We showcased TCF’s commitment to its communities through its financial literacy initiative and the Strategic Neighborhood Fund in collaboration with the City of Detroit. We led the management of the press conferences and events and worked to ensure that our strategy was thoughtful, proactive and timely.

Event Management

Reputation Management

Press

Results

We assisted TCF with the mission to maintain positive public awareness about renaming the Cobo Center – a historic change for the City of Detroit. We ensured messaging was consistent and sensitive to the history and the progress of the city and showcased TCF’s commitment to its communities. The TCF Center renaming announcement and celebration generated significant coverage with at least 548 tracked media hits and estimates for the reach of those hits at nearly 426 million. The TCF Center renaming was featured heavily – 100 times – on the region’s broadcast stations, including all three Detroit market TV stations, Michigan’s two leading public radio stations of WUOM-FM and WDET-FM, and the Great Lakes State’s largest radio stations of WWJ-AM and WJR-AM.