In May 2005 advertising awareness of the Connect brand was a lowly 9%, while their main competitor and marketplace Number One was enjoying record lending figures with a brand campaign (delivered by us).

When a management change at Islandstate made SmithAssociates available, ConnectFinancial sought our help. Here's what we created

What we did. As well as creating an all encompassing positioning line, ‘ConnectFinancial. Life changing’, we transformed the company image: everything from their new brand and trading name through to uniforms, branch design, advertising and website, ATMs and offices.

How did things change? The new campaign, which launched in August of the same year, caused awareness to leap to 82% in less than nine months. After just one week, search engine marketing resulted in a staggering 760% increase in hits on the ConnectFinancial website.

On top of that, the number of new customers and lending applications, as well as company profits, all rose significantly. We can’t tell you exactly how much because it was commercially sensitive, but when we say a lot, we mean a lot.

They went to number one.

• Awareness rose from 9% to 82% in less than nine months
• Search engine increase of 760% after first week
• New customers and lending - Number 1 Position in market