Patelco, one of the country’s largest credit unions and a long time client of ours, celebrated their SF branch grand re-opening last Wednesday and an early morning line of 100+ people eagerly waited to get a look at the brand new interior. Or maybe they were there to collect the $75 being awarded to the first 75 people through the doors. This was just one of the offers we cooked up this summer to promote the branch and its move.

At the end of July, Patelco closed their current SF main branch doors and moved on up the street to 124 Second. With this new branch location opening just 75 yards away from the old, the goal was to make existing members aware of the move, so daily banking routines weren’t disrupted, as well as bring in potential members.

In July, we targeted existing members with a direct mail flyer notifying them of the branch move and promoting the “First 75 in, take $75 out” offer with a QR code. Upon scanning the code, members were taken to the sitelet we developed earlier in the year for the Patelco Pays Your Way campaign. And a pop up prompted visitors to enter their information to receive a voucher and chance to win the $75. Additionally, visitors had the opportunity to take a look around and learn how Patelco celebrated their anniversary by giving back to the community.

We also created a series of bold, eye-catching posters for the new branch windows directing anyone passing by to visit the site. All patelcopays.org visitors during the promotional period, not just current members, were eligible to redeem the voucher.

This dream pairing of a ground breaking contemporary artist with one of the most forward thinking museums in the world provided us with an envious opportunity: to produce a cutting edge, effective campaign with local and national reach.

Beginning in June, the campaign print ads will run in such high profile magazines as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Architectural Digest and Sunset Magazine. Online we are hoping to reach the younger art enthusiast with banner placements (check out the chosen design) on Yahoo! and SFGate.com. To reach the core local audience we also developed newspaper ads, rack cards, street banners and cable cars ads.

How do you brand an organization that embodies a pioneering spirit that’s almost antithetical to branding itself? An organization of such startling originality, it builds its home out of copper to resemble a vision of the future Buckminster Fuller would have been proud of.

Our brief was to help determine a cohesive strategy for the de Young museum and develop an integrated campaign to help drive traffic back through the plate glass doors. Not an easy charge. We had to ask ourselves, what characterizes the de Young? And even San Francisco itself? The short story: audacity, creativity and, of course, originality. The beauty of the de Young campaign was realized through its simplicity. A detailed grid was used across all printed materials to capture the multifaceted nature of the organization and it’s stunning collection. A stark black background allowed the art and typography to vividly standout, while the flexibility of the grid allowed us to pair art with nature and stunning architecture – a literal vision of the museum’s character.

The media run painted the streets of San Francisco with Street Banners and Cable Car Wraps. For those who were unable to visit the city during this “aesthetically enriching” (thanks, Gavin!) media run, we also provided Rack Cards for local businesses and Print Ads in publications such as Los Angeles Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, and Diablo Magazine.

The result? In the four-month period after the launch of the de Young campaign, average monthly attendance rose by 12% (!!!). Audacity, creativity and originality at work.