(The Birmingham News /photo by Linda Stelter)

We were recently featured in The Birmingham News.

By Roy L. Williams, business writer

Birmingham-based America’s First Federal Credit Union, created to serve steelworkers in the 1930s, took its rivalry with banks to a humorous level this year with a series of television commercials created by advertising veteran Paul Crawford.

Crawford, president and creative director of Scout Branding at 216 29th St. South, came up with a campaign for America’s First that pokes fun at bank fees, which critics say are too high. The five 30-second spots, mostly filmed in Los Angeles using unknown actors, have aired several times on Alabama television stations where the credit union has a presence.

The commercials gained national exposure last month when the New York Times featured them in an article about how some credit unions have shaken off dull advertising strategies and grown bolder in promoting themselves.

The America’s First ads are centered around a common theme: Actors posing as bankers who enter a booth that says, “Banker Confessions Taken Here,” and confess their guilt about hidden fees and charges.

In one commercial, a woman says it was her idea “to jack up fees and lower services,” then boasts about the perks she received. In another, a man admits that his bank charges “a lot of fees for nothing.”

Then he says, “How do I sleep at night? Did I mention that my bonus check had two commas in it?”

Each ad ends with the tag line, “America’s First Federal Credit Union — refreshingly unbank like.”

Crawford and America’s First officials say the attention gave an immediate boost to traffic on both Scout Branding and the credit union’s websites, and generated calls nationally. “We had told America’s First that this might get national attention because it is in your face compared to typical credit union ads,” Crawford said.

It’s not the first time that Scout Branding, a five-person firm Crawford founded in 2006 after spending nearly a decade at major advertising firms in Boston, Atlanta and Nashville, has made waves. In 2007, Crawford created a television, print and online anti-scam campaign for the U.S. Postal Service that aired in major publications and television stations across the country. Those humorous spots played off familiar scams, including a foreign lottery scam featuring a man speaking in broken English.

Right actors are key

Crawford, whose client base includes Alagasco, Children’s Hospital and Baptist Health System, said finding the right actors is critical for a successful commercial.

“We looked at probably 200 actors before deciding on the five we used in the America’s First campaign,” he said. “It took a lot of work. We put in six weeks of production before showing it to them.”

Crawford said America’s First’s marketing chief, Phil Boozer, and Chief Executive David Adcock knew the campaign “was out of the norm from what they had done,” but were willing to take a chance.

Boozer said the commercials paid off and accomplished their goals.

“These commercial let people know what we do as a credit union by showing them what we don’t do in a fun and humorous way,” he said.

Crawford said Scout Branding has benefited from a good team that allows it to accomplish many of the things that a bigger firm can.

“We don’t have a lot of layers of management that the bigger firms do and it allows us to get things done quicker and smarter,” he said.

Still, Crawford acknowledges that his firm, like many others, has been affected by the economic downturn.

“We weren’t hit as hard as most others are because we have always operated on a lean staff,” he said. “We could probably be twice in size but choose to remain small. The firms who can deliver good ideas on budget and on time will be OK.”

Prior to the district level, Scout took home 18 ADDYs at the Birmingham ADDY Awards Show, 14 Gold and 4 Silver. Scout’s president/creative director, Paul Crawford, won Creative Director of the Year and Copywriter of the Year. Scout’s associate creative director, Ryan Gernenz, won Designer of the Year.

The ADDY Awards is the largest creative competition in the country with about 55,000 local entries competing in 200 cities coast to coast. Winning an ADDY at the district level is the second step in competing for a National ADDY Award.

Scout’s Creative Director, Paul Crawford was featured in Advertising Age’s Small Agency Diary. Click here to check it out.

Scout Branding Company

BIRMINGHAM, February 8, 2010 – The American Advertising Federation Birmingham held its annual ADDY Gala at Old Car Heaven. Scout Branding won 18 ADDYs — 4 silver and 14 gold. Scout’s president/creative director, Paul Crawford, won Creative Director of the Year and Copywriter of the Year. Scout’s associate creative director, Ryan Gernenz, won Designer of the Year. The five-person shop had the highest total of gold ADDYs won Saturday night.

“The awards are nice,” says Paul Crawford, president/creative director at Scout. “But, we don’t let awards shape how we work. The main focus at Scout is to find ideas that help our clients grab market share and grow their revenue.”

Scout Branding was also recently named Agency of the Year at the 2009 Birmingham Peak Awards also held at Old Car Heaven.

Alagasco

PlantATree.Alagasco.com

“When you walk in through the doors of Scout, you see a gigantic footprint.
We have a large 5’ x 7’ wall display where we show off recent projects. The project that currently occupies this display is the
first I came to know at Scout: Alagasco’s “Cut Your Footprint in Half.” Read more on our blog

Websites

Here is a sampling of our websites. You can go to scoutdoeswebsites.com to see more.

Britt Little Horn

Here is some work we did for a production company. This includes: Logo, Stationary Suite, and a Website.

Oasis Counseling for Women and Children

A re-branding project.

Here is what Oasis had to say about the re-branding in their Annual Report:

“Our clients’ lives are transformed through their commitment to counseling sessions with our trained staff of professional, licensed counselors at Oasis.  Like many of our clients here at Oasis, we’ve recently experienced a re-birth, a transformation.  And, thanks to Paul Crawford and his talented team at Scout Branding, Oasis has a fresh, new logo – the butterfly – and a name change to Oasis Counseling for Women and Children, which better reflects a major part of our mission, to serve children as well as women.”

Logos

Here is a collection of some of our logo work.

Balch & Bingham

Recruitment material for Balch & Bingham.