We LOVE getting to do projects for Kansas City (have you seen our work for the KC Streetcar yet?). So when Central Bank of Kansas City came to us for help on a cause-related marketing campaign that funds community development, we couldn’t wait to get started.

Like most banks, Central Bank of Kansas City wanted to increase deposits, but unlike most banks, the purpose was to support loans for community development projects—having recently secured funding for initiatives like Operation Breakthrough, Harvesters, Linwood Area Ministry Place, and Pendleton ArtsBlock to name a few.

Their solution was to run a certificate of deposit (CD) campaign, and they approached us to help determine targeting, messaging, branding, and tactics—then execute.

Cause-Related Messaging & Branding

This was a campaign we knew people would get behind if they knew what their investment would help support. In a banking world where the only differentiator for CDs is typically the best rate, we made sure to highlight the win-win of helping a cause as well as getting a return on investment.

We named the campaign “CD for KC”—with “CD” serving as a nod to both the cause (community development) and the product (certificate of deposit)—then paired it with the tagline “watch your money and community grow.”

Marketing Tactics to Equip the Right People

When you’re supporting causes that people already care about, there’s built-in opportunity to leverage that audience. Most of our tactics went towards empowering the right people—the bank and the partner organizations it has helped support—with everything from handouts for community meetings to a digital promotion kit to use in social media and email to a landing page that ties it all together and much more.