Strategy — Business Development Advertising — Marketing Print
We began working with Liberty Bank in 1997, so this is just a small sampling of our work. Many annual reports, marketing materials, and creative campaigns fill our samples drawer! And we’ve also worked with their amazing Foundation since its inception. We love the depth of a long-term creative relationship, and the variety of work it produces.
Liberty Bank came to us with a unique assignment to give their B2B sales force the tools they need to target Connecticut small businesses in a meaningful yet direct way. Ink&Pixel knows small business! We rose to the challenge and worked with the bank chain's small business accounts division to develop a collection of fun and punchy concepts that cut through the clutter and speak to small businesses in their own language. Think "mom and pop" shops with heavy cash usage and long days put in, so not a lot of time to deal with complexities of banking arrangements. We knew a sales approach would have to be practical, to the point, and above all else authentic.
For the centerpiece of the marketing materials we created a tabbed fanbook of their business products printed on indestructible Yupo synthetic stock and fitted to actual vinyl bank deposit bags — custom imprinted with our concept branding. 
We loaded the sales force up with great marketing collateral for their calls, including these graphic tees which prospective customers enjoyed in their leave-behind packages. Taking business banking vernacular to new levels, Ink&Pixel gave the campaign a savvy twist at every turn: our copywriting team crafted perfect headlines and body copy for the product materials, and conceptual references to currency were used in our design and packaging components, even including custom cash-wrappers branded with our campaign messaging. "Count on us" and "Give me Liberty or give me debt"
Ink&Pixel conceived of using the tees as a follow-up mechanism then we convinced the bank to produce a high volume of tees. This way the sales reps would have reason for multiple visits without being seen as pushy, but rather thoughtful. By having one gift tee for everyone working at the small business, they could make more meaningful connections with the whole operation, not just the owner or decision maker. This strategy underscores the importance of each individual in the shop, store, or office, and the visit would be more personal and memorable.
The bank's sales force couldn't have been more thrilled to put it all into action. The campaign landed them stacks of new accounts, and went on to cross-sell existing small business customers in a way that brought new life to Liberty products, and also cemented the bank's long-term commitment to its surrounding communities in every corner of the state. 
The pièce de résistance of the campaign was a follow-up gift to thank each new small business account for their trust in Liberty: we had cast-iron replicas of antique gumball machines made with our messaging etched into the curved glass domes. We wanted to 1. create a gift that had staying power (picture these sitting on shops' countertops all over the state); 2. make something that emphasized the bank's unique heritage (they were established in 1825!); and 3. deliver something that was interactive (they work on good old-fashioned US coins). The gifts were hand-delivered by the President and CEO of Liberty Bank, which speaks strongly to the bank's authenticity and their clear understanding of how relationships are made and kept. Not to mention that typically, once an account is landed that's the last you might hear from the ones that sold you in the first place. Liberty really "gets it" and Ink&Pixel knows the ins and outs of what it takes to run a small business; so we wanted to help them nail it for every customer from the first meet to a special reward — a celebratory gift that keeps on giving. "A little pick-me-up." "I believe in pocket change." "Your two cents makes cents." and "We'll carry a torch for your business."
We also supported Liberty Bank's internal initiatives, such as this large-scale poster created to celebrate and recognize the employees that all have been instrumental in the bank's tremendous growth in deposits — totaling more than $3 billion at the time of printing. The byline "At Liberty Bank, Our Strength is in Our Numbers" supports both the financial successes of the institution and it also marks the moment and echos the poster's main illustration: a pixelated rendition of the bank's torch logo made from hundreds of staff portraits shot for the project, by Lanny Nagler Photography. The text sidebar spans the full height of the piece and lists every staffs' names bank-wide — including every member of the corporate offices, each branch employee, and their support staff in the customer service call center. The bank really wanted no one left out — that's a corporate community we are very proud to work with.
Direct mail is a marketing outlet that can yield substantial results, but only if your message can stand out from the rest of the pile. When Liberty Bank came to Ink&Pixel to create a direct mail piece to attract new customers to their top level products, we were confident we could get Liberty noticed in the visual clutter of mailboxes. Our first strategy was to create a series of cards, not just one, so the mailpieces would arrive as fun and welcomed repeat visitors to each prospective customer. But we didn't stop there — we conceived of a way to make sure folks would notice these postcards even with their eyes closed: we had custom scents produced for each of the cards that was embedded as a scratch-and-sniff coating. 
Customers could interact with the cards by scratching them to reveal a burst of pleasing and iconic fragrances — each one connecting to the individual product's messaging. The result was not just a postcard, but a full sensory experience: a series that is visual, tactile, and even smells good! "Banking that makes perfect scents." and "The sweet smell of success."
Ink&Pixel created the event invitation suite for the second annual Liberty Bank Community Diversity Award reception and celebration. To lead our concept we used the symbolism of international maritime signal flags to spell D-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y on the cover panel of the main invite card. Here we are using a system recognized across the globe to communicate the concept of diversity by going beyond the bounds of cultural language. This graphic twist is not only an unexpected way to kick off the cultural importance of the event, but the concept also celebrates the event's location at the historic Amistad Landing, in Connecticut's port city of New London.
...and how do you spell D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N-S and P-A-R-K-I-N-G for event way finding cards you might ask? With flag semaphore of course — the maritime telegraphy system conveying information at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags. 
