REPOSITIONING BANK OF AMERICA

WEEK 3 UPDATE

Overview
In the less-than-three weeks since Bank of America repositioned its brand, our countryand all of its conversationshave been immersed in a national crisis. Given that, its tough to evaluate just how impactful or not its initial burst of activity has been. Brian Moynihan stated that the strategy of connecting our customers to all we can do for them is working. (Earnings call 4/17/2013.) We would hesitate to claim that just yet.

Since the launch of the new Bank of America brand positioning, our team has continued to monitor their marketing activity.
In the following pages, youll find analysis that covers: } } } } Overview of Phase 2 of the campaign What people are saying: updated Social Listening Summary How people are feeling about the brand: Emotional Share of Mind Analysis of the In-Store Experience

As expected, Bank of America appears to be settling into its second phase of the launch:

PHASE 1
Tell a refreshed, impactful story about BAC that communicates what it stands for and shows the value of the corporation
Enterprise-level messaging Focus on communicating new position Highlight diverse range of businesses and partnerships across the corporation Include Associates in order to rally internal teams Focus on highest-profile channels to extend the reach of the message

PHASE 2
Pay it off: demonstrate how BAC connects customers and clients to what matters most to them or their businesses
Heavier focus on product-specific messages like: BankAmericard Rewards Credit Card, BankAmeriDeals Rewards Program, Merrill Edge. We expect media to lean toward consumer offerings since other businesses are less dependent on advertising. Breadth of ways to bank locations, digital, ATM networkhas always been a key focus of BACs messaging. We expect that its likely to come into play here as well, especially considering the new updates to banking centers. Expect all channels to be in play, with heavy integration with digital. This would include mobile and tablet as BAC has a great deal of pride in its offerings for these channels. Expect enterprise launch work to continue in media, albeit at lower levels, to continue to reinforce the new position

Social Listening Summary:

What are people saying about the campaign or the brand?

Our team looked at what people were saying 3 weeks prior to launch, and 3 weeks since launch.

Social Listening Summary (3/9 4/19)

The Connections campaign mentions comprise only 1.1% of Bank of America conversation and do not have an effect on overall brand sentiment. Additionally, the Connections campaign has been featured in publications such as AdAge and Adweek, driving the overall conversation. For the small percentage of consumers talking about the campaign, the response is generally positive. Prominent news stories and investment/earnings reports tend to be the major drivers of Bank of America sentiment.

There have been 1,591,998 mentions of Bank of America in the past six weeks.

Bank of America Mentions by Day

Reliance chairman stepping down from board; stocks performing well after BofA announces stock buyback plan.
160,000 140,000 120,000
Mentions

Average mentions/day:

37K

New campaign launch

Q1 earnings reports

100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0

3/9 3/11 3/13 3/15 3/17 3/19 3/21 3/233/25 3/273/29 3/31 4/2 4/4 4/6 4/8 4/10 4/12 4/14 4/16 4/18

Source: Social Rader

Connections campaign-related mentions made up 1.1% of Bank of America conversation in the last 3 weeks and 0.56% in the last 6 weeks.

Campaign Mentions by Day

Campaign launch article in AdAge

3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0
3/9 3/11 3/13 3/15 3/17 3/19 3/21 3/233/25 3/273/29 3/31 4/2 4/4 4/6 4/8 4/10 4/12 4/14 4/16 4/18

Article continuing to receive traction and tweets/articles about the commercials pick up

Mentions

Source: Social Rader

Features in AdAge on 4/5 and Adweek on 4/10 drove overall conversation during the first weeks of the campaign.

WEEK

3/30 4/5

4/6 4/12

4/13 4/19

VOLUME

3,401

4,690

924

% OF OVERALL BofA MENTIONS SENTIMENT RATIO

1.16%

1.85%

0.35%

3.5

6.9

2.0

MICROBLOGS

24%

89%

67%

BLOGS

75%
Driven by AdAge article on 4/5

8%
User conversation picks up as article is shared around social networks and Portraits spot featured as ad of the day in Adweek

28%
Blogger BankNotes by Kelsey writes I still believe in Advertising post featuring BofA spots sentiment skewed low by one blog post

NOTES

Sentiment ratio of campaign conversation was 4.8, which is 243% above the sentiment ratio for Bank of America overall. This was largely driven by feature articles but is still noteworthy.

Bank of America Campaign Sentiment

Campaign Conversation Cloud Overall

31%

61% 7% 1%

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

MIXED NEUTRAL

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For those consumers discussing the campaign, the Portraits and Newfoundland commercials were generally well received.
8% of mentions reference the Portraits commercial Spot was featured as the Ad of the Day in Adweek on 4/10. Sentiment ratio was 6.0, above the Newfoundland spot and Bank of America conversation overall Several comments indicated that they had no idea this was a bank ad until the end

1% of mentions reference the spot with the Newfoundland Sentiment ratio of these conversations is 5.0 More mentions express sentimental thoughts about the dog and less about the bank or the commercials i.e., I love that Newfoundland in the Bank of America commercials.

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Mentions of the billboards in Times Square were largely driven by the featured nonprofits, including Goodwill, Special Olympics, and United Way.
14% of campaign mentions reference these billboards 37% of this conversation was positive resulting in a 15.0 sentiment ratio Conversation peaked on 4/12 with chatter about the Special Olympics billboard General mentions indicated respect for this effort by Bank of America

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Mobile Banking commercial appears to have hit a negative note with some viewers.
3% of campaign mentions reference the mobile banking commercial that features a woman using her mobile app in a movie theater Sentiment ratio for these mentions was 1.5; however, skewed more positively by a news stream discussing the Times Square billboards that also had a story about movie theaters further down the page Conversation primarily occurred on 4/11 when a pop culture journalist with almost 750 Twitter followers tweeted the message below and received 17 retweets

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Sample Posts

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Emotional Share of Mind

The Emotional Share of Mind is determined by our proprietary tool, the Emotional Positioning Index. The tool allows us to harness the wealth of consumer feedback available through social channels to determine how consumers feel about your brand.

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We examined three of the top positive words associated with the brand respositioning as well as three of the most used negative concepts associated with the brand.

POSITIVE
Postive words associated with the reposition: trust, connection, customer service
TRUST Most discussed, attributed with 18% positive and 11% negative. Overall mentions decreased 3% post-rebranding but had a large increase in forum discussions. CONNECTION Third most discussed, attributed with 15% positive and 11% negative. Despite being a major focus of the repositioning, overall mentions decreased 17% post-rebranding, with decreases across the board. CUSTOMER SERVICE Fourth, fifth or sixth most discussed, attributed with 21% positive and 10% negative. Overall mentions increased 60% post-rebranding, mostly on Twitter and blogs.

NEGATIVE
Negative words associated with the reposition: greed, foreclosure, hate
GREED Fifth or sixth most discussed, attributed with 15% positive and 13% negative. Overall mentions increased 40% post-rebranding, mostly on Twitter and forum discussions. FORECLOSURE Second most discussed, attributed with 13% positive and 11% negative. Overall mentions decreased 22% post-rebranding. HATE Fourth or fifth most discussed, attributed with 17% positive and 14% negative. Overall mentions increased 38% post-rebranding, mostly on Twitter and forum discussions.

Overall, the effort to date has done little to positively change perception and seems to have stirred up a mix of positive and negative commentary about the brand.

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The In-Store Experience

Bank of America Atlanta Store Audit
The Bank of America branches attempt to support their Lifes Better When Youre Connected campaign from many angles. The imagery and creative language used in the store communications seem more human and approachable than in past years. They try to focus on the consumers needs first and exude helpfulness, most of which feature easy payoffs showing how their unique products and services make life easier.

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The In-Store Experience

OBSERVATIONS:
Like a human greeter, doors feature Hello messages when entering and Goodbye ones when leaving. Ensuring that all are welcome, both English and Spanish translations are present everywhere. Nicely dressed staff greet the customer with a smile and host them to where they need to be.

Lifes Better When Youre Connected is promised on a large ceiling banner flanked by images of customers happily engaged in this visually. The services being promoted everywhere are about connections that make life easier (with specific examples), with their mobile banking and BofA app* centrally focused. Examples: App. Snap. Deposit: Deposit checks using your phone. Easy instant transferpay the babysitter, return a friends loan, etc., instantly on your phone.

The seated waiting area and work desks surround (3) 1942 digital screens virtually talking to customers. The screens loop messages about the Lifes Better When Youre Connected promise in various formatsinterstitials, broadcast TV spots, products and their simple life payoffs and shout-outs about how they can helpso come talk to us. They include full sound and video.

*To note, customer sentiment about the app is less than ideal. It clearly has some challenges and customers are being vocal about it.

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The In-Store Experience

OBSERVATIONS CONTINUED:
The teller area also has 1942 screens located above or behind the counters. They display the same content as the large lobby screens, but they have no sound. Fifty percent display English messages and 50% display Spanish ones. Associates mention that they have gone through additional training, with a focus on going the extra mile with customer engagements, feeling more human and authentic in how they come across, and actively (but humbly) sharing how B of A can help. They are also being cross-trained on the full suite of products and services. Interestingly, while focusing on human associate training, the brand is also hanging their hat on technology that customers can use to self-serve. In addition to adding the ability to video conference with a teller from an ATM, several super-branches are making further enhancements by way of luxurious floor plans, videoconferencing with financial specialists, and roving tellers to help cut down on waiting time. Comfy chairs will soon feature self-serve tabletsfor customers, with the tablets also being available to employees.

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The In-Store Experience

IN-STORE CONCLUSIONS:
This dual-pronged approach of recentering itself on the basis of human interactions while also testing new tech-based engagements is interesting. Mounting costs from legal fees and new regulations have given banks good reason to become more efficient, and many of them are finding ways to replace expensive human workers with cheaper machines. This lets customers complete simple transactions (such as deposits) for themselves and frees bank employees for money-making tasks such as selling mutual funds and services. But do people really want to bank on an iPad in a branch when they can do that at home? And isnt a teller experience more compelling when its in the flesh and accompanied by a warm personal greeting? How the brand continues to balance this tech vs. human service approach, as well as the customer reaction, will be interesting to watch.

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In Conclusion:
At this point, we have seen little impact on the Bank of America brand from its launch efforts. While conversation thus far may have been muted given the unusual circumstances of late, there have not been any notable game changers. The campaign has had only a moderate effect on the attributes driving online conversation. Some positive sentiment was created, but negative sentiment was unleashed as well. As has been the case over the last few years, when Bank of America makes noise, their detractors do too. The in-store experiences show promise, but with the shift to more robust online banking the question still remains about whether these brick-and-mortar updates will pay off as a good long-term investment. On Bank of Americas YouTube page theyve received over 1.5 million views of their Portraits spot. The other launch spots have had a few hundred thousand views as well. These numbers are significantly larger than the social conversations weve tracked. Its important to note that theyve disabled comments on YouTube so viewers cannot add their point-of-view.

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