WAMU
Bring a traditional brand to life online
The assignment was to create a new digital ad campaign for Washington Mutual (aka WaMu). My art director partner Evan Sornstein and I wound up doing much more: creating what the client described as the digital expression of the WaMu brand. (This was back in the days when Brand Books didn’t deign to address online media.) We called it "Friendly Banner."
Like most of WaMu’s marketing, it drew upon WaMu's "Simpler Banking and More Smiles" mantra to speak directly to customers in a voice that was approachable, clear, and funny. Building on the capabilities of our medium, we worked closely with our media team to give Friendly a degree of situational awareness —a new idea, at the time—as well as personality through animation. I created guidelines so that future teams could replicate Friendly’s voice. What started as a one-off, became the online campaign for WaMu for many seasons afterwards. In collaboration with Razorfish.
AWARDS
Bronze ADDY, American Advertising Federation (Bay Area)
Best Financial Services Online Campaign, WebAward Internet Advertising Competition
Best Banner, ad:tech awards (2008)
PRESS
"A friendly banner, in a sea of annoying and aggressive display ads…"
–BannerSnack