Woodbine is introducing several characters to cable viewers in North Carolina this summer. As part of a new TV campaign for Piedmont Federal Savings Bank, we are highlighting the bank’s 107-year history of safe & secure lending through the experiences of a damsel in distress named Mortgage and a couple of hapless fellas named Ira and Mr. Checking.
Spot #1: The Perils of a Girl Named Mortgage. Mortgage is a metaphor for, you guessed it, a mortgage loan, and she faces all kinds of trouble when she’s taken out of town. The takeaway is it’s safer to get your home loan from Piedmont Federal because they don’t sell their loans to other banks. As an added bonus, you won’t get hit by a train driven by a cigar-smoking psychopath.
Spot #2: The Misfortunes of a Man Named Ira (which is an IRA but is pronounced I-ruh). The spot tips its hat to financial losses and recessionary pain and that Piedmont Federal does a better job of looking out for its customers’ financial well-being, which is absolutely true considering their secure IRAs actually provide a return even in a down economy. (Call us and we’ll point you to your nearest location.)
Spot #3: The Unfortunate Mr. Checking. This one stars Fatty Arbuckle, one of America’s most beloved actors in the 1920s (would love to tell you how we got the rights but that would be giving too much away). His role is to show how hidden fees tied to checking accounts make you feel like you’re loosing your shirt, or in his case, his pants. We have to admit, it’s much funnier this way.
Matt Mason, associate creative director and head copywriter at Woodbine, on the production and the thinking behind the campaign:
“Piedmont Federal has been around sine 1903 and that’s significant in this day and age. We wanted to shoot some spots that tell their current product stories but show consumers just how steadfast and customer focused they are. Unfortunately, with the budget we were limited in terms of production, so we had to dig deep down into our creative bag of tricks. We came up with the idea of making silent movies, using existing stock footage, our own grunged-up art cards and some great original music by the master musicians over at Ovation Sound. They created the music the same way they scored those old flicks… a guy on a piano watching the film and playing along with the action. We’re getting all kinds of comments back about how noticeable the spots are.”
Exactly. Thanks, Matt.
You can also watch a one-minute version here.
Credits:
Art Director: Renee Kid
Associate Creative Director: Matt Mason
Creative Director: Vickie Canada
Account Director: Kris Kriofske
Film Editing: Serious Robots, Raleigh
Music and Sound Editing: Ovation Sound, Winston-Salem
Across the Carolinas, and possibly the country, all eyes will be on Winston-Salem today. The governor, our mayor, the council and local business leaders will join Caterpillar officials and announce the company has selected our fair city as the site for its new production facility.
For those of us who build brands, not earth-moving equipment, it’s not about the jobs Cat will bring. That’s great for the community and our economy, but what we’re liking even more is the cache and pride of welcoming a global brand like Cat to our city. If a little-known company came here with five times the number of new jobs, it wouldn’t be nearly as exciting.
At Woodbine, when we heard Caterpillar might be coming, everyone got excited. We know this brand. Their business is far removed from what we do, but we are fully aware that they are category leaders. They are industrial giants. They make tough machines, are involved in moving earth and building stuff, and their trucker hats are about the coolest thing you’ll find on the shelf at any given Flying J.
Welcome to Winston, Caterpillar. We’re looking forward to learning more about you, but whatever you’ve done to protect and grow your brand over the past 80 years, our hats are off to you. And now that we’re neighbors, you better believe they’ll be CAT hats.
