Building Clients' Brands

by Aleasha Vuncannon & Michelle Rash

What exactly is a brand? If you were to ask RLF Creative Director Ron Irons, he would tell you that a brand is not a name or a logo. It is not a product, service or business. It is a promise, an expectation and ultimately an experience. A brand is a reputation.

Recently, RLF worked with two clients — the Chesapeake Convention & Visitors Bureau and American Founders Bank — to develop new branding campaigns.

Chesapeake Convention & Visitors Bureau
For the Chesapeake Convention & Visitors Bureau, RLF Creative Director Ron Irons took inspiration from the familiar acronym I.O.U. and conceived Chesapeake's U.O.U. campaign. The campaign connects with people seeking to escape – even if it's just for a short time – from the routine and positions Chesapeake, Va., as a leisure travel and meetings destination.

The campaign launched this year with print and online advertising for leisure, outdoor recreation and meeting planner audiences. This print ad positioned Chesapeake, Va., as an outdoor recreation destination. Similar ads ran in outdoor enthusiast publications to build awareness and drive traffic to the Chesapeake CVB website.

The rebranding effort also included a re-skin and content overhaul of the CVB's website to reflect the new brand and messaging. RLF worked with the Chesapeake Convention & Visitors Bureau to implement the new brand strategy across a number of collateral materials, including its 2011 Visitor's Guide and meeting planner guide.

American Founders Bank
With American Founders Bank, RLF was tasked with raising the visibility of a small bank in a crowded banking market. American Founders Bank, known as AFB, was trying to better position itself as having the friendliness and personal touch of a community bank with the expertise of its larger counterparts; however, the bank's previous branding and collateral materials did not convey that image.

To develop the new brand, Irons deliberated the question of "Why AFB?" to which the answer was "Because." This "Because" became a focal point of the new branding campaign – AFB is different than the competition "Because." This simple word gives us the ability to develop marketing materials around why AFB stands out, while also allowing us to be a little quirky and give the bank, and its brand, a sense of humor.

The campaign launched late this fall with an advertising campaign focused on small business lending and checking accounts, but has also been incorporated into some internal signage and messaging.