Kenny Rennard

Bank of America is a big supporter of (RED) - the global AIDS organization. In fact, they've pledged to donate over $10 million to them in the next three years. But we don't want to just give the money away. Where's the fun in that. Not to mention, the bank wouldn't get as much credit for it.

So we decided to do something different: A Super Bowl activation. The whole idea was about getting people to download a free song from U2 (one of RED's biggest supporters) heard partially during the Super Bowl. For every download, Bank of America would donate $1 to their cause. In the end, it was a huge success. Massive downloads, a bunch of unique "firsts" and a bronze lion at Cannes. 

How do you follow up a Super Bowl spot and then a global running event with Nike ? For the third year of the Bank of America/RED partnership came about after RED wanted to do something for World AIDS Day.  Unfortunately, that year it also coincided with Black Friday.

So how do you get consumers to pay attention to this worthy cause when all everyone in America wants to do is shop? You go to the center of consumerism and do something that gets everyone to take notice. And you do it with some of the biggest names in music and entertainment.

So, the bank has this great credit card that gets you points good for all sorts of travel rewards. What makes this one different is that there are no restrictions or blackout dates. You can use the points whenever you want. And that makes travel super easy.

To illustrate that, we came up with a a little idea that used people who made it hard to travel, or found travel really difficult. Even though, it was nothing compared to dealing with the blackout dates and restrictions of today.

GMC makes trucks. Big trucks. So when they decided they wanted to make something that was decidedly smaller - yet still had the same capability, they knew they couldn't do it in a traditional way.

So we came up with a digital content series called Terrain's World. Each video would highlight a different aspect of the SUV highlighting it's smaller, more manageable size.

We created seven videos in total. These are three of my favorites. They're also the ones that won awards including a Webby.

So how do you top a Super Bowl activation for the next installment of the Bank of America and RED partnership? Well in this case we came up with the platform "One Step Closer To Ending AIDS" and partnered with one of the biggest name in sports: Nike.

Their running app provided the perfect opportunity to both figuratively and literally bring One Step Closer to life. We took their fans love of running, and the pride that goes along with keeping track of all those miles, and added even more incentive than just fitness or health to every mile.

The end results were a groundswell of participation - and sharing. Something not typically associated with a bank that people love to hate. More importantly, people joined together to run for a great good and in the end ran almost 2 million miles in support of RED.

Harley Davidson riders are predominantly male. They're also mostly baby boomers and older. Which means they needed to attract younger, female riders. To do that they created a riding program that taught novices how to ride. It was our job to attract and appeal to a female audience.

So we came up with an innovative campaign that started with print. People could hold their phones over the women in the ads mouths and hear real stories directly from the subjects.

We also incited people to visit the website where they could hear all the stories - and better yet - leave their own stories about learning to ride, or what their motivation for learning to ride would be.

Not only was this totally fresh and interesting , but we got far more stories that served as a confessional as to why learning how to ride a motorcycle was so important in their lives.

First and foremost, I didn't come up with the name, so let's get that right out of the way. Since this is an altruistic, for-the-people site and experience the bank ultimately wanted to leave it up to them.

That aside, I'm both proud, and surprised, at how well this has done. Created solely to be informative and educational, WITHOUT product sell, service offerings or any ulterior motives, this site came into being solely as a resource where the bank's customers could learn and better understand their money.

And I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it's done. Especially given that many of the videos we created have more than 700,000/800,000 views. That's for 5+ minute video on financial education. Andpeople were not only watching, but sharing and commenting. For a population that loves to crucify Bank of America, that' pretty amazing.

Bank of America's online banking - and in particular, their online app - is consistently rated as the best around. To that point, they wanted more people to download and use the app. Because it's great addition to their online banking.

So they asked us to come up with something that did that. If we could take advantage of their affinity program and activate some of their Major League Baseball properties all the better. What we came up with was a tour of some of the best parks in America and the small additions that made them great.

Bank of America has this program call BankAmerideals. Terrible name, but pretty interesting product. Basically when you use your Bank of America Cash Rewards Credit card, this program gives you additional money back. 

To highlight and promote it we came up with a content idea that highlighted the greatest deals of all time, and the fact that you can take advantage of a great deal every day.

We did them in a variety of different styles, some live action, some illustrated. People seemed to like them quite a bit. In fact the won a bunch at Hatch and were also shortlisted for Webbys.