Design Magazine Honors bcpbank Campaign

This display greeted customers at every bcpbank branch.

bcpbank recently received an "American In-House Design Award'" sponsored by Graphic Design USA magazine for its "Free Checking on Wheels" campaign. Graphic Design USA (www.gdusa.com) is read by more than 100,000 graphic design professionals and firms around the United States.

The competition aims to assure that the outstanding work of in-house designers and design teams is fully recognized by colleagues, the creative community and, more importantly, corporate and institutional management. Some 3,500 different entries were received for this year's competition. Previous winners have included ABC Television, Bloomberg, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Pepsi, The Wall Street Journal Online, Time Magazine, Wells Fargo and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

All award categories focus on the activities and strengths of in-house design departments that put together everything from brochures, special logos, direct mail pieces and sales materials to newsletters. Designers and organizations are asked to submit their artwork based on what they consider to be their individual strengths. Each entry is judged against itself, based on its creativity, effectiveness, performance and success, as well as sensitivity to the challenges and constraints that some in-house designers face.

The bcpbank "Free Checking On Wheels" campaign used the colors and typeface found in all print and online bcpbank publications.

"The intent of our 'mini' campaign was to give new customers an incentive to start banking with us and experience a level of customer service that goes beyond the expected," Pedro Belo, bcpbank chairman and chief executive officer, said. "Winning an award for in-house creative design helps prove that our marketing message was not only effective, but, indeed, innovative."

Bcpbank's "Free Checking on Wheels" campaign made use of multiple forms of collateral, merchandise, and media advertising to bring its main message to thousands of homes within its areas of influence. This campaign also became the first time that the company actively involved every employee to bring in new customers. Each employee received a personalized "Referral Booklet". Every single branch also received full campaign collateral with personalized ballot displays, signage for teller counters and CSR stations, as well as large posters displayed at the windows and giant cardboard cutouts of a Mini Cooper. Print media advertising carried the theme "Free Checking on Wheels" over to newspaper ads.

The bcpbank creative team developed a massive branding effort centered on a Mini Cooper convertible, an iconic vehicle that was the campaign's Grand Prize. The background color flow used was intrinsically associated with the bcpbank brand and was utilized on every single piece of communication. For example, internal e-mails concerning "Free Checking on Wheels" were forwarded using the familiar background and using the internal employee tagline "Have you made your referral yet?". The bank's Web site, bankbcp.com, greeted every online visitor with an image of a Mini Cooper zooming onto the screen.

"This success is an encouragement to our organization and an added responsibility for our future campaigns, Belo added. "At bcpbank, with enthusiasm and energy we are all committed to strengthen our creative process, so that clients can not only experience our unique product offering and customer service, but also be dazzled by our distinctive image in the ground-breaking campaigns to come."

bcpbank is a community bank, headquartered in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey. bcpbank has 18 branches in the United States in New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. bcpbank provides comprehensive banking services and solutions to its customer base, servicing individual and corporate customers through a combination of personal and business banking products and services. bcpbank is wholly owned by the Millennium bcp Group, a successful international financial group with resources available worldwide.

Founded in 1985 and with total assets of EUR 76.9 billion and net income of EUR 753.5 million in 2005, the Millennium bcp group is the leading financial group in Portugal and one of the top 100 in the world, and is listed on the Lisbon, Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam Stock Exchanges. The bank's major activities include consumer and corporate banking, credit, custody of securities, treasury services, foreignexchange transactions and money-market operations. Through its various subsidiaries, the Millennium bcp Group is also involved in related financial services, including insurance, asset management, private banking, investment and pension fund management, medium and longterm credit, specialized credit (leasing and factoring), mortgage loans, consumer credit, organization of capital market operations, corporate finance, factoring, company valuations, venture capital financing, brokerage and property management.

Over the years, the Millennium bcp Group expanded its global reach through operations in international markets, namely in European markets of high growth potential, such as Poland (Bank Millennium), Greece (NovaBank) and Turkey (Bank Europa). At the same time, the Millennium bcp Group carries on the development of autonomous operations in diversified geographic markets either with strong historical relations with Portugal or in ethnic markets with relevant presence of Portuguese communities, namely, through BCM (Macao), BIM Group (Mozambique), and bcpbank (USA and Canada).

Millennium bcp was named "Bank of the Year" in Portugal in 2005 by The Banker magazine, an edition of the Financial Times Group. Millennium bcp was recognized for its strong performance and efforts. The Banker magazine promotes excellence among financial institutions that are leaders within the commercial banking sector, and accords the acknowledgment of the international financial community.