Eastern Bank wants you to join them for good. That’s not the way it sounds — the bank is not asking you to join it forever, but it would like you to join in its endeavor to make a difference in the community.
Eastern’s “Join Us For Good” campaign is entering its fifth year. And, says Paul Alexander, chief marketing and communications officer, the campaign is intended to “inspire everyone to celebrate those who are making a difference, while also sharing Eastern’s commitment to doing good things to help people prosper.”
Eastern’s nearly 1,900 employees and Eastern’s Partners for Good, along with the viewing public, can see David Ortiz and Doug Flutie are regularly on TV ads, “rallying and inspiring others to join together to create a movement around doing more good to help customers, communities and colleagues,” Alexander said.
Alexander’s tenure at Eastern began six years ago. He was hired by Chair and CEO Bob Rivers, who was just this week honored again by Boston Magazine as being one of the 100 Most Influential Bostonians.
“When he hired me,” Alexander said, “We wanted to relaunch our brand (of social consciousness).
“Eastern has a long history of social consciousness,” he said. “It is committed to doing good things to help people prosper, however they can do that. And you have to have a CEO and a board that is committed to doing this kind of work.”
The current campaign was launched in 2017, with simple aspirations in the beginning.
“No. 1, we wanted you to know that you made a good choice banking at Eastern,” he said.
But it became more than that. Eastern has been upfront in its support of social initiatives ranging from youth to Black Lives Matter to immigration rights. Also, one of the reasons Boston made Rivers the fifth most influential Bostonian was the bank’s visibility in the COVID-19 relief effort.
Lucky breaks also have something to do with the campaign’s success, Alexander said. Flutie has been associated with the bank through the fund he helped set up for autism. However, Ortiz was looking for a local venue for the charity he runs in the Dominican Republic, “and we were in the right place at the right time,” Alexander said. What made it even better was the chemistry between the two.
“I’m sure David didn’t know a lot about Doug’s commitment to autism,” Alexander said, “and I don’t know if Doug knows about David’s commitments to the Dominican Republic.”
In last year’s campaign, Ortiz highlighted Eastern’s bold advocacy and passion for giving back, and focused on community partners and customers who have joined Eastern for good.
The campaign is out with a new ad, “GOOD Speaks Up,” directed by Los Angeles-based African-American director and producer Jazeel Gayle.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Gayle specializes in visual storytelling and uses his perspective to provoke and inspire audiences.
From the beginning, Alexander said, the campaign has been a “team effort,” with the help of the Conover Tuttle Pace advertising agency and Havas Media.
