Experience design agency takes home coveted awards for Workers Credit Union ad campaign and Arrowhead Credit Union rebrand
On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 in San Francisco, CA, the CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council held its annual Diamond Awards Celebration. The Diamond Awards are the credit union industry’s most prestigious competition honoring “creative excellence and outstanding results” for credit union outreach campaigns. Adrenaline’s clients Workers Credit Union won a Diamond Award in the Complete Campaign category, and Arrowhead Credit Union took home a Diamond Award in the Rebrand/Corporate Identity category.
Partnering with Workers Credit Union, the creative minds at Adrenaline hatched a hair-brained scheme for the “Bank Like a Big Wig” campaign to produce a fresh take on banking. With branches across suburban Boston, Workers CU wanted to create positive brand awareness that reflects the credit union’s value proposition and distinct personality. Born from the straightforward tagline “Bank like a Big Wig,” the campaign hilariously transforms members from ordinary blue and white-collar workers into literal big wigs, producing big wig results.
Ty Wong, Adrenaline’s Creative Director, says, “With Workers, we created a concise concept – that you can be a big wig if you bank with this credit union. But the real brilliance of the campaign lies in its execution. We did these short form vignettes of a person as a big wig. Then throughout the whole ecosystem – from out-of-home to a bus to radio to social – every piece was intentionally distinctive, but tying back to the whole. This approach resulted in translating the big wig message purposefully across all aspects of the media landscape and the market, resulting in a fresh, holistic personality.”
Working with Arrowhead Credit Union, Adrenaline’s creative team was tasked with creating a new brand for the modern consumer with updated messaging to better articulate the credit union’s identity. A service-oriented credit union with a well-established internal culture, Arrowhead boasted many generations of loyal members. However, their visual identity wasn’t reflecting the rapidly-changing progressive institution. Looking for a total brand evolution that remained true to their values, Arrowhead sought a new logo, website, collateral, brand guidelines, and an advertising campaign to announce the brand’s update.
According to Ty Wong, “Our goal for the rebrand was expansion. Understanding their members were in the Inland Empire – not LA, not Orange County – but it needed to feel elevated and contemporary. It has this understated complicity, which resonates well with a broader audience. The mark is an “A” that actually has an arrowhead carrot on the inside, which is a very small, witty thought that isn’t gratuitously executed. I think the simplicity of it and the streamlined nature and how iconic that very simple strategic thought was is the reason why that rebrand looks so good and is so successful.”
For more information about creating award-winning campaigns, contact us at info@adrenalinex.com.
