CASE STUDY: SLC Bond School
George K. Baum & Company's ("GKB's") Salt Lake City, UT, practice ("SLC") frequently utilized the talents of our in-house Marketing Communications department to conceptualize, brand, design and produce all of SLC's annual "Bond School" conferences and events.

SLC's seasonal Bond School campaigns were originally created to promote, educate and network GKB's clients on the process of taxable and tax-exempt financial bonds. These forums were designed to be visual, engaging and highly informative, offering GKB's professional expertise and guidance relating to the overall operations and mechanics of public and municipal finance engagements.
brief:
Playing off the popularity of pop culture and seasonal trends, we created themed campaigns branded to mimic the excitement and energy of a specific season for each event. With a uniquely playful and prolific approach, we used a collection of customized infographics and illustrations to capture the attention of our target audience.

From "Save The Date" announcements, stationary packages, promotional displays and advertisements, to invitations, presentation forms and web-page registration links, we developed full-throttle branding campaigns for each and every Bond School conference.

approach:
Typically, SLC's Bond School meetings were held in the early part of the spring or fall months, which gave us the opportunity to play off popular seasonal affairs such as hiking and mountain climbing, the NASCAR racing series, NCAA Basketball's March Madness, and Major League Baseball's Spring Training.

The brand "Back to Utah Bond School" plays off a back-to-school concept symbolizing the end of summer and the beginning of fall, thus the start of a new school year. As with most of SLC's Bond School events, we were able to award special prizes and giveaways to the winners (attendees) on the day of the conference.

"Back To The Races" mimics the popular NASCAR racing series, usually peaking in the fall months. Branded as an intentional trademark "rip-off" of the NASCAR identity, this campaign presents the recognizable, but "re-worked," NASCAR logo as "Bond School," along with the appropriate color pairings. It also features the SLC finance team in full-on racing pit gear.

Our "March Madness" and "Spring Training" themes utilize familiar, conceptual (infographic) designs from the NCAA College Basketball tournament and Major League Baseball. Again, both of these extremely popular sporting events debut in the Spring months.

"March To Greatness" is simply a narration about achieving goals, reaching new heights and climbing (often symbolic) mountains. As the month of March (early spring) sometimes encompasses these notions, "March To Greatness" was an obvious comparable, and one that most people could easily relate to.

results:
As the lead Creative Director and Vice President of the Marketing Communications group at George K. Baum & Company, along with the help from the Salt Lake City, UT, finance team, we quickly found a niche when we began the process of promoting our seasonal Bond School conferences. Using a pop-culture flavor and a few mainstream advertising techniques, we took advantage of some recognizable current events and sports genres that fit perfectly with the current season.

Each of our Bond Schools was extremely well attended. As seen throughout these diverse campaigns, the messaging for our events is just as stimulating as the visuals. We've received countless positive reviews over the past several years... specifically for such consistent, creative and profoundly memorable branding methods.

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Peter DiPersio, DiPersioDesign | Owner & Chief Marketing Officer | www.DiPersioDesign.com | ©2024 Copyright*
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