PeoplesBank ‘Record Number’ PR Campaign Success Based on More Than a Number

PR pros know that success often lies well beyond the numbers. Data is fine, but it is barely digestible for most people. The difference between getting media coverage and engagement clearly is in the story that is told.

So, what was the “Record Number” campaign story? Well, the last chapter certainly was about the numbers. For the second year in a row, the GCAi PR team worked with PeoplesBank to celebrate another big year for charitable contributions. But in fact, the Record Number campaign was based on a celebration that started at the beginning of the year. PeoplesBank wanted to recognize and promote the charitable and civic causes that they supported across two states.

Through videos produced for digital dissemination, PeoplesBank gave several nonprofits in Massachusetts and Connecticut a chance to tell their story. The engagement numbers for those campaigns were off the charts, but beyond the KPIs measured was the human element – the outpouring of comments acknowledging the critical importance of the nonprofits highlighted but also an acknowledgment of and thanks for the bank supporting them.

PeoplesBank is regularly named the “Top Corporate Charitable Contributor” amongst community banks in western Mass by the Boston Business Journal. That’s not really a surprise when they set impressive records like $2.3 million donated in 2022 – which is a cool million more than the previous year. That, as PeoplesBank CEO Tom Senecal often says, is the power of a mutual bank.

Now it was time to celebrate, and GCAi’s LA office designed and implemented a digital public relations campaign that was based on the voices of all those nonprofits. The results were incredible. Every media outlet approached, over two states, covered it. Amazingly, the reporters and editors of The Republican not only reported the record number, but they also did a separate editorial [LINK] on it the next day, celebrating PeoplesBank by noting, “Advertisement for financial institutions uniformly emphasize their connection and partnership with the community. It’s important that they follow up on that credo, and they have been doing that, with PeoplesBank just one of many at the forefront.”

Digital dissemination extended the reach of media coverage well beyond the readership of those publications. Here the numbers do tell an impressive story: more than 1 million super impressions – impressions powered by close to 300,000 engagement actions, supported by nearly 100,000 video views, which generated more than 4,000 link clicks.

There is no other way to achieve this kind of engagement. Telling stories through digital PR that engages both media and audience is the way, in the end, to get lead audience members to exclaim to their friends and the rest of the digital audience, “I’m a proud customer!”