First Citizens Bank

RADIO

 
This is Mark Lantz writing this. I mention that fact because you should know I’m speaking for myself here, not necessarily the broader Factory team. And what I have to say is this:

I love radio.

I always have. Falling asleep as a kid with the transistor radio on and waking up to find the battery dead. Clicking the buttons as I drove around Cleveland or Chicago or Los Angeles or San Francisco (places I’ve lived), looking for something to listen to. Collecting recordings of old radio dramas (The Shadow). Listening to talk radio, news radio, NPR, rock, alternative, oldies, football games, even religious and Spanish language stations when I’d be driving the I-5 corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles (and no, I don’t speak Spanish).

A medium of just sound. Imagine that! What a wonderful thing.

I’ve also always loved great radio ad campaigns.

Like the Molson radio campaign, which brought the same two voice talents, a woman and a man, to different situations, playing different characters, one of them always trying to score a Molson off the other. Classic.

Or the Motel 6 campaign featuring Tom Bodett, a great music track and perfect writing. We’ll leave the light on for you. Also classic.

Or the Pure Michigan campaign (which I had a bit of a hand in), with voice work by Tim Allen, music from the soundtrack of The Cider House Rules and exceptional writing by Dave Moore and Patrick McHugh (on the very best of the many, many spots produced). Also, also classic.

So, I love radio.

In the years we’ve been creating advertising for First Citizens Bank, we’ve done a lot of radio. Why? Because it’s a wonderfully flexible medium. And it doesn’t cost much at all to produce. So you can make commercials that are all about the brand, commercials that promote free checking or home equity loans or whatever else . . . and anything in between.

We’ve created some 60 plus radio spots so far. All but two featuring our signature brand music (that we created when we launched the campaign in 2013) and all featuring our exceptionally talented voice artist, Jason Watt.

Here you’ll find some of my favorite First Citizens radio spots. Give them a listen. They’re the heart of what we try to do with the brand . . . talk about real life, how money affects it and the ways First Citizens can help you do more in both your financial life and your life life.

(BTW, here’s a secret: One of the perks of working on radio is it’s a writer’s medium and you don’t have to take any guff from designers and art directors, most of whom look at copy as a bunch of squiggles on an otherwise pristine sheet of paper, web page or brochure. I mention that here because I doubt any of our art folks will ever read this far.)