Iowa bankers launching ad campaign spotlighting community banks

The Iowa Bankers Association hopes a new marketing campaign will shine a spotlight on community banks and recruit future employees.

The new ad features employees from Iowa banks across the state along with the different ways they are involved in their communities, including volunteers, coaches, and parents.

The campaign is designed to create public awareness of the state's banking industry as well as recruit younger generations, especially Millennials, said Lori Ristau, vice president of marketing and communications for the IBA.

Starting in January, the ad will run on Iowa Public Television as well as radio stations across the state. The IBA also plans to leverage social media to better reach Millennials, including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

The bankers association worked with Drake University's journalism school to develop the ad in the fall, which Ristau said was an added bonus because it gave students some real-world experience.

Advertising students broke up into four teams and provided four different concepts. Ristau said elements from each of the concepts were brought together into a single concept by the IBA marketing and communications department.

Ristau said the organization, which represents 345 financial institutions, received feedback from members in rural communities about the challenges of retaining Millennials as bank employees and customers because the generation is moving to more urban areas.

John Sorensen, IBA president, said the group also is working with the state's colleges and universities to create internship programs to build a pipeline of prospective employees for rural banks.

It also was important for the organization to distinguish Iowa banks from non-traditional 'shadow banking,” such as pay-day lenders and mortgage brokers, which Sorensen said are 'less regulated” and do not 'face the same accountability.”

'We wanted to describe the difference with Iowa banks, which have traditional relationships, and are entities involved in their communities,” he said.