1. Financial Services
Marketing Highlights
Gregory Curran
Creative Director/Marketing Strategist

2. Print – Citibank Diamond Preferred Card
• This campaign needed to create a buzz about a special double points
promotion. The executions focused on how the Diamond Preferred card
makes earning points fast and easy, so you can earn rewards that help
you enjoy the things in life that matter most.

3. Print – Citibank Diamond Preferred Card

4. Online Support Tool – BlackRock
• We developed this tool to simplify and enhance a function that is key
to BlackRock’s success – serving the needs of their advisor network.
The intuitive, handsome and efficient slider tool allowed advisors to
provide the feedback needed for BlackRock to then provide support
materials that are more relevant and valuable.

5. Online Support Tool – BlackRock

6. Branch Signage – Fleet Bank
• Driven by changes in lifestyle and technological evolution, bank
customers are visiting their local branches less and less frequently.
Fleet addressed this trend by lengthening business hours so customers
could visit when convenient and these posters were part of a campaign
to publicize that new service enhancement.

7. Branch Signage – Fleet Bank

8. Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial
• LPL was an uncontested category leader but their existing
advertising failed to truly convey and capitalize on the firm’s superior
offering to independent advisors. We created an integrated
recruitment campaign that successfully repositioned LPL while
exceeding performance goals by 300%.

9. Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

10. Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

11. Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

12. Advisor Recruitment Campaign – LPL Financial

13. Collateral – Fleet College Savings
• The college savings market was a top priority for the investment group at Fleet.
This brochure was developed to be used as a sales tool by the investment staff
and also as a mailer.
• The piece was carefully written and designed to deliver the desired dual focus
on both Fleet’s investment expertise and their high level of service.

14. Collateral – Fleet College Savings

15. E-commerce – Splender.com
• Splender was an ecommerce start-up that introduced an innovative new
model for consumer lending. Consumers leveraged their online spending
power to obtain superior loan rates, enjoy a better customer experience,
and earn points that were used to pay off their loans.
• To introduce this revolutionary idea, we built a beta website that reflected
the brand’s core values: transparency, innovation and empowerment.

16. E-commerce – Splender.com

17. Consumer E-Mail – Chase
• The client’s email acquisition for checking (created by another agency) was
sucking wind. So Chase gave our team a chance to improve things.
• Our work crushed the email control by clarifying the offer and simplifying the
call to action. Plus it was way more elegant and engaging than the other
agency’s stuff.

18. Consumer E-Mail – Chase

19. Consumer Direct Mail – PNC Bank
• Good creative teams are always in search of deep, rich emotional bonds to a
product or service. Few subjects offer more potential than that of
homeownership.
• These executions provide visual and copy cues that allow the audience to
project themselves into the story of a young couple making their first house
into a “home. ” That connection helps form a valuable and genuine connection
with PNC’s home owner-directed offering.

20. Consumer Direct Mail – PNC Bank

21. Consumer Promotion – Fleet Life Goals Tour
• To support the client’s overarching “Smarter Decisions with Fleet”
theme, we created an integrated, nationwide program to engage
consumers with that message. The program was built around a
yearlong tour by a special branded bus and also included web-based
and printed financial education tools, signage, premiums and a
sweepstakes.
• Consumers (and the bank) loved the promotion, and it exceeded goals
for increasing sales of Fleet savings and investment products.

22. Consumer Promotion – Fleet Life Goals Tour

23. Marketing Strategy – Citizens Customer
Centricity Initiative
• The creative team at Merkle helped Citizens “crack the code” on an
important corporate initiative that they had long struggled to
implement – customer centricity. We digested the client’s
segmentation research and developed a recommendation that was
instrumental in planning and implementing this initiative across the
bank’s marketing spectrum.

24. Marketing Strategy – Citizens Customer
Centricity Initiative

25. Marketing Strategy – BBVA Preferred Customer
Program
• In support of a program re-launch, I led the creation of a strategy and
messaging blueprint for the BBVA Preferred Customer Program. Working
closely with my partner in the strategic planning group, we identified key
customer segments and developed messaging and branding guidelines to
both acquire and retain customers deemed to be the most valuable by BBVA.

26. Marketing Strategy – BBVA Preferred Customer
Program

27. Marketing Strategy – Citizens Social Media
Launch
• The CMO at Citizens announced that establishing a social media
presence was her highest priority. The words were barely out of her
mouth when I began developing the strategic roadmap that helped the
bank make their first marketing foray into the world of social
networking.
• Our strategy helped turn a bank populated by nervous marketers into
firm believers in the value of social media to engage customers with
the Citizens brand.

28. Marketing Strategy – Citizens Social Media
Launch

29. Contact Information
Gregory Curran
576 Barrack Hill Road
Ridgefield, CT 06877
P - 203-438-3419
C - 203-837-6000
E - g.curran@yahoo.com