St Vincent Co-operative Bank wins prestigious award

The St Vincent Cooperative Bank Ltd (SVCB) recently won a prestigious international advertising award, making it quite possibly the first locally-owned business to receive such.

The announcement was made last Thursday, May 19, that the SVCB, also known as ‘The Penny Bank,’ has been awarded a Silver Addy from the Caribbean Advertising Federation (CAF) for its ‘Dreamland’ land financing campaign.{{more}}

“It is an extremely proud moment for us!” enthused SVCB manager Laverne Velox at the event held at the Bank’s headquarters at Bay Street, Kingstown.

“The CAF is the first and only non-American member of the American Advertising Federation, and is part of the fourth district of Florida and the Caribbean.”

She added: “Given that the CAF is the regional chapter of the American Advertising Federation, it means the campaign work was, therefore, judged by international judges, and has met international standards.”

According to Velox, Barbados-based marketing and advertising agency G&A Communications Inc was not only the creative force behind the campaign, but also in the past has partnered with the bank on its rebranding, and the launch of the Penny-savers account.

Quoting from correspondence provided by the managing director of G&A Communications Inc, the SVCB manager stated: “The St Vincent Cooperative Bank Ltd’s streamlined campaign met the prestigious Silver Addy Award standard, and is, therefore, ranked amongst the top advertising campaigns in the Caribbean region… Congratulations to SVCB for having the vision and the imagination to foster such a creative and compelling advertising platform to promote its products and services. The award is well deserved.”

Managing director and chief creative officer at G&A Communications Inc Devin Griffith was also present at the press announcement.

Describing the allocation of the award as a “fantastic achievement”, Griffith said: “It would be very remiss of me not to congratulate St Vincent Cooperative Bank Ltd on having this aspiration to develop a brand and develop a business to international standards, so that the bank now rivals major international brands such as CIBC and other international brands that operate in the Caribbean… It means having high standards will give you that competitive edge…

“We are quite proud of being involved at this point… You have set the bar high and you have set a precedent here, and I hope you will continue to develop creative campaigns and push the envelope.”

In addition to congratulating the advertising agency on a “fantastic job”, Velox also lauded the bank’s board of directors for its “foresight in approving the idea.”

Representing the board at the press conference was Samuel Goodluck, who expressed his pleasure at the award, and said that he looks forward to further collaboration with the agency on developing future strategies.

The Dreamland campaign, which was launched in May 2015, has also been successful from a financial standpoint in that, to date, there have been 60 approved loans totalling approximately EC$3 million.

The land-only loan campaign has a limit of $70,000 per customer.

“This really is a good investment for first-time borrowers, [and] young people,” explained Velox, noting that the monthly repayments are smaller and spread over a longer period of time. (JSV)