• by Tanya Gazdik , May 11, 2010

Citizens Financial Group is launching a new campaign with TV spots breaking May 12 that includes a new tagline: "Good Banking Is Good Citizenship."

It replaces the previously used "Not your typical bank," which will no longer appear in any form, according to a Citizens Financial Group spokesperson. The "new corporate platform" focuses on the premise that a good bank "treats you like a neighbor, helping customers and communities grow and prosper."

The campaign, from Ogilvy & Mather, includes TV, print, online, outdoors and POS. Bank workers also will be engaged through numerous initiatives, including the "opportunity to pledge their individual commitment to customers and communities on an internal interactive website."

TV includes four spots breaking May 12 on primetime, NBA and NHL playoffs, Major League Baseball and local news, Citizens spokesman Mike Jones tells Marketing Daily. Print, which also kicks off May 12, runs in a variety of daily and weekly publications throughout the bank's footprint, he adds.

The spots show Citizens employees talking about their roles in the community -- from coach to parent -- to demonstrate that they also are part of the communities served by the bank. One spot highlights the bank's beginnings with references to Alexander Hamilton and the founders of the country who were the original visionaries in articulating the values of "citizenship" for the new United States.

Says CFG Group Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Theresa McLaughlin, in a release, "It's a reminder that the Hamiltonian view of banking was that of a facilitator of prosperity for a community and the country."

Print ads feature a background with the bank logo's signature teal green color and large typeface with headlines such as "We treat our customers like neighbors, because they usually are" and "One man's savings is another woman's factory." Some print ads simply feature the new tagline.

Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial Group has more than 1,500 branches and 22,700 employees. Its two bank subsidiaries are RBS Citizens, N.A. and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania which operates a 12-state branch network under the Citizens Bank brand in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the Charter One brand in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. CFG has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. CFG is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).