Situation
Terre Haute Savings Bank prides itself in being “Your local bank believing in the Valley.” This pledge extends to its involvement in the local community, particularly through its support of high school sports.

Last year the bank established the Wabash Valley All Sports Team to honor outstanding male and female high school senior athletes from across the area. This year additional efforts focused on establishing a trophy for the winner of a traditional cross-county sports rivalry – the Terre Haute North Vigo and Terre Haute South Vigo High School girls’ basketball game. The boys’ rivalry has had a trophy for 10 years, and bank officials felt it was important for the female athletes to receive the same level of recognition.

The bank commissioned the design of the “Champions of the Court” trophy, a scale replica of a basketball floor, with a crown, hand-crafted of gold-colored metal by a local metal artist, mounted on it. Each year’s winner will be recognized with an engraved jewel-toned metal disc (red for South or blue for North) added to the crown.

Problem
Community recognition of the boys’ trophy is well established. In fact, the trophy sponsor, Burke Spring & Alignment, who sponsors the varsity football and boys' basketball athletic contests between the two schools, also covers a portion of the cost for holding the basketball games at a large downtown venue, Indiana State University’s Hulman Center.

Terre Haute Savings Bank wanted to be sure that the new trophy received as much attention as the existing one, and that the attention was properly identified with the bank.

Solution
MillerWhite assisted Terre Haute Savings Bank with two events to introduce and publicize the new girls’ trophy, as well as to brand the bank’s community involvement through support of high school sports.

The first was a press luncheon to unveil the trophy, which media, sponsors, community leaders, school corporation officials, coaches, athletic directors and principals, as well as the senior captains from each team attended. The players unveiled the trophy, which was draped in the colors of each school.

To recognize Burke Spring & Alignment’s leadership and commitment to the boys’ trophy, a representative from Burke, Kim Burke, attended and supported the luncheon, which the two entities plan on making an annual event.

The second event, which the bank called the “Pre-Game Pit Stop,” was an open house held just before the game. Fans were encouraged to stop by and pick up a spirit stick waver to support their favorite school. (Wavers were red for South and blue for North.)

For this event, MillerWhite created an integrated brand partnership for THSB with three of its other clients, Pepsi, Clabber Girl Corporation and Burke Spring & Alignment. The Pre-Game Pit Stop was held at the Clabber Girl location, just across the street from Hulman Center. THSB supplied the wavers, Clabber Girl supplied the refreshments and Pepsi supplied drinks. All four of the partners’ logos appeared on the wavers, which fans took with them into the game.

Many companies today seek to increase their brand equity, market share and profit by integrating with others to create new products and services or sponsor events. By taking advantage of this “branding by association,” MillerWhite has found that clients that have unrelated products or services but share the same core values and the same target markets can combine strategically to leverage brand equity for all parties.

Creating a brand partnership for the Pre-Game Pit Stop was a win-win for all partners.
For the lead (or best known) brand, in this case Pepsi, the event signified its investment in the community and associated it with a popular community activity, the North-South rivalry. It also got the Pepsi name into the venue where a competitor had a lock on the beverage sales.

For Clabber Girl, which had recently renovated its downtown location to include a Bake Shop, Museum and General Store, the event opened the facility to a new audience and gave them a taste of the Bake Shop’s fare.

For Burke Spring & Alignment, the Pre-Game Pit Stop reinforced the fact that it continues to be the sponsor of the North-South contests.

For Terre Haute Savings Bank, the event helped raise the level of its brand equity by association with the larger companies (Pepsi and Clabber Girl) and with a business that has long been a supporter of high school sports (Burke Spring). It also built on the bank’s growing association with sports in the community, at all levels, from banners at every little league baseball field to sponsoring Indiana State University television broadcasts.

To get the word out about the Pre-Game Pit Stop, MillerWhite prepared posters which were distributed at the trophy unveiling, prepared an announcement that was sent to each school to be read over the PA, and arranged with radio stations to assist through heavy promotion the day of the event. Additionally, a daily live sports talk show did its broadcast from the pre-game event, with the host encouraging fans to stop by.

Result
The measurable result of the Pre-Game Pit Stop was, of course, the 1,300 wavers that were distributed prior to the game and the reaction from fans as they stopped to get them.

“The wavers were a great boost for the bank and reinforced our commitment to the community,” said Marty Woods, the bank’s director of marketing. “Once folks realized they were free, they were thrilled to get them and often asked for extras to give friends or family.”

Bart Colwell, president of THSB, said, “With the boys’ and girls’ games being played on the same night and in the same venue for the first time, it created the ideal opportunity for us not only to have the trophy for the first time, but also to have a pre-game event, one which we hope will become just as much a tradition as the games themselves.