As the oldest and largest mutual bank in the US, Eastern Bank has done what's right and smart for over 200 years. We define ourselves by our unwavering dedication to social justice in New England. We donate 10% of net income each year to local charities, which has totaled over $100 million invested in our communities since 1999. Supporting our communities, particularly those that are underserved, is in our DNA. That's why in 2016, we set out to ignite a movement and introduced our brand campaign, "Join Us For Good."
"Join Us For Good" is rooted in our mission to do good things to help people prosper—including fighting for social justice causes such as LGBTQ rights, women's equality and immigration reform.
As the 2018 Midterms approached, we knew the election results could have a profound impact on these issues. Would newly elected representatives support DACA? Would women be better represented in political offices? Would Massachusetts repeal protection for transgender people?
Too much was at risk to do nothing. So, with the help of our agency partners, we launched our "Good Votes" social campaign. The objective of the relevant and actionable campaign was to encourage our audience to "Join Us For Good" in rallying behind our colleagues, customers, and communities by:
We knew many recent events that threaten the rights of immigrants, transgender people, and women left the people of our community frustrated and angry. But the 2018 Midterms were a chance to fight inequality and injustice, so we harnessed those emotions to meet our objectives of driving people to the polls and using their vote for good.
To do this, we knew we couldn't use the approach of many other brands—including direct competitors in the Banking/Finance sector—who take a broad-stance approach to advocacy. We couldn't rely on non-controversial platitudes such as, "Go Vote!" or "Exercise your right." We needed to put a stake in the ground. Be provocative. Be courageous. And we were. Here's how:
The Good Votes campaign successfully educated, empowered, and activated our community. The campaign's courageous messages paid off both on- and offline.
Far outperforming our social benchmarks, the campaign garnered:
We also saw unprecedented amounts of healthy conversation on our posts, with comments ranging from appreciation for us taking a stance, to motivating social action:
The campaign and our commitment to the Freedom For All MA Yes on 3 Coalition also played a supporting role in influencing outcomes in the market:
For 200 years, we've done good things to help people prosper, and the community response to the Good Votes campaign serves as affirmation that we need to and will continue.
