In the wake of the pandemic the issue of trust, or consumers’ lack of it, is at the very top of both the marketing and broader business agenda. While trust has long been a key challenge for brands in the wake of the pandemic, brands are looking for new ways to tangibly show their role in supporting the communities and customers they serve.

A new campaign for Metro Bank, created by Mr President and media agency Goodstuff, takes this commitment to community marketing to the next level. The bank has teamed up with three of their business customers to create radio ads to promote them. A tangible gesture of support for local businesses. 

Mr President created and produced the overarching campaign as well as working with Metro Bank’s business customers to develop their radio adverts. The strategy for the campaign was audio first, a reflection of the enduring power of radio to local communities. 

Local-first marketing

The campaign underlines the importance of supporting the community in marketing; a trend which has become increasingly clear in the wake of the pandemic. Lillie Price, Business Director at Mr President, says that supporting local communities has shot up priority lists during the pandemic, and that is being. reflected back to us in the campaigns we are seeing.

She explains: "People want to buy into brands that share the same values as they do, but it’s not enough for a big brand to simply jump on the band-wagon. They have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk: by tangibly supporting communities rather than simply using them at a surface level within their campaigns." 

It’s a shift which means that brands need to act with humanity at their core. Creatively for Metro Bank’s campaign this human approach is brought to life by the humans working at the bank - namely the Local Business Managers - working hand in hand with local businesses. The bond between the two was brought to life in the campaign. 

As Paige Spencer, Planning Manager at Goodstuff, explains: “The pandemic has been a breeding ground for start-ups, as people have used this time to re-evaluate their priorities and ambitions. Metro Bank understands that business-people need people-people to help support them along this journey.”

That Metro Bank would choose to make its first business campaign about its customers is a reflection of the business’approach. As Mr President’s Price explains: "It wasn’t enough to simply give these businesses a shout-out, instead we developed creatively rich and distinctive adverts for them, handing over the airwaves for their first national campaign and effectively rolling four campaigns into one.”

As businesses look forward to opening their doors in the wake of the pandemic; increasingly even the world’s biggest brands will need to think local first.