“That’s the way small town banking is. You know your customers.”
Our very favorite stories to tell are, at their core, about people. This is definitely one of those stories. When Northwoods Bank asked us to create a campaign celebrating their 100th anniversary, we knew that it needed to focus on people: both those who have built Northwoods Bank and those they have impacted. To accomplish this, we provided Northwoods with a special 100 Years of Service logo, social graphics and content, themed event support, and video.
The Project
The centerpiece of this campaign was a 3 minute, 40 second video telling the story of Northwoods Bank. The story begins in 1919, when J.C. Hewitt and his son, Colby, purchased Farmers State Bank in Dorset, Minnesota. We interviewed both Mark Hewitt, Chairman, and his son Scott Hewitt, CEO, to learn more about their family’s involvement with Northwoods Bank. The bank has remained in their family through 100 years, a name change, and a physical move from Dorset to Park Rapids. To help illustrate the bank’s history and evoke a feeling of nostalgia, we paired interview audio with footage of old photographs, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings.
The video takes on a new tone as we move from past to present. The music picks up; where there was nostalgia for the past there is now excitement for the future. We reached out to multiple businesses in the Park Rapids area who are customers of Northwoods Bank: SWI Interiors, Northstar Orthodontics, the local Dairy Queen, and Royal Starr Resort. Each business owner we spoke to shared how Northwoods Bank has helped turn their dream into a reality. These interviews are paired with drone shots of Park Rapids and footage of our interviewees at work, painting a picture of the community Northwoods Bank calls home.
We chose to end this video with a smile montage featuring these business owners and their families, as well as Northwoods staff. This sequence of smiling customers and employees making direct eye contact with the camera is a visual representation of what Northwoods Bank is about: relationships, community, and above all, people.
15 Second Cut
From this video, we also created a 15-second “sneak peek” cut to be shared on social media, custom 100 Year graphics, and written content. These materials drew from the same themes and visuals as the full-length video to ensure consistency within the campaign. In the end, all of these materials came together to form a celebration of Northwood Bank’s growth, a “thank you” to their community, and a look at what’s to come in the next 100 years. Happy Anniversary, Northwoods Bank!