After a while, the tag lines on the print ads developed by Fidelity Bank, Edina, Minnesota, all started to read the same. They said something like “The Bank of Business” or “Creating Business Solutions.”

That’s when the financial institution, which specializes in serving business customers, decided to try something different. The bank introduced a campaign in which one of the headlines says, “The beans can’t touch the meatloaf.”

The campaign was so distinctive that it encouraged the bank to create a series of spin-offs, including employee “beans and meatloaf” lunches and a trophy to recognize special services consisting of an oversized can of baked beans with a Fidelity logo on its label.

The “beans and meatloaf” ad was designed to appeal to meticulous people, the kind who don’t like their beans to touch the meatloaf, according to Steve Stoup, the bank’s senior vice president of marketing and business development. Fidelity sees its customers as people who are particular about where they do their business banking.

The “beans and meatloaf” slogan is intended to be shorthand for the fact that the bank’s employees strive to have comprehensive knowledge of the bank’s customers and their financial needs. When distributing data about new customers to employees, the bank includes such personalized information as the customer’s favorite beer or travel destinations.

The agency for the campaign was Introworks in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Read more about the “Beans Can’t Touch the Meatloaf” Campaign
How simple comfort food impacted a client’s culture.
What do beans and meatloaf have to do with Introworks?

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“Our goal was to stand out in an engaging way,” said Stoup, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Fidelity. “You look at the business bank advertising in the Twin Cities and it’s basically all the same, saying the same old things.”

“We knew Introworks would produce a more compelling and attention-getting campaign that would be genuine to who we are and be about the client, and not the bank.”

The new campaign did a whole lot more than that. Not only did it grab the attention of its target audience, CEOs of privately held companies in the Twin Cities, but it also aligned all 55 employees at Fidelity Bank-inspiring them to a whole new level.

The campaign consists of three ads and each ad highlights a specific personality trait of a typical Fidelity customer. Because Fidelity has such a close working relationship with its clients, it understands them at far deeper, more meaningful level, as compared to most banking relationships. (Click ads to view larger.)

The first ad’s headline, “The beans can’t touch the meatloaf” speaks to the meticulous nature of one type of Fidelity client. The second ad, “Eyeball is the only way to measure,” focuses on the client who is strictly “big picture” while the third ad, “Feet always face the headboard,” refers to the client who prefers the unconventional.

Within a matter of weeks, employees were having beans and meatloaf luncheons, creating a beans and meatloaf award, and serving cupcakes with frosting displaying eyeballs and feet.

“It has aligned the entire bank to what we do every single day for clients that no one who works here really notices,” Stoup said. “It has been a fun way to value the little things we do here that keeps our customers loyal to the bank. Beans and meatloaf is now part of our vocabulary in operations, customer service and lending. It has truly affected our employees.”

Stoup said while campaign has gone well beyond expectations in terms of aligning the bank’s employees with its brand, it has also accomplished its goal to differentiate Fidelity Bank in the Twin Cities marketplace.

“It gets people’s attention and they ask about it,” Stoup added. “It gives us a chance to tell our story in a unique way that people actually get it and understand. It engages people. That’s exactly what we wanted as an outcome.”