I& BANK AND TRUST COMPANY ADVERTISING. Endeavoring, by forceful, well-planned advertising, to secure new depos itors and customers for a banking institution, or to increase the dealings of present customers with it, is a comparatively recent development of the business, both in the United States and abroad.
Formerly, about the only advertising con sidered proper for a bank and trust company was the publication of its financial statement and a °car& with the names of the manage ment, together with the barest statement of the services rendered by the institution. But of late years, partly on account of the great ad vances made in general advertising and partly because of increased competition in the banking business, many institutions have gone into the matter of advertising more fundamentally, either putting that branch of their activities into the hands of agencies specializing in that kind of work, or employing a publicity or ad vertising manager to devote his entire time to the advertising of the institution.
Naturally, it is only the larger banks that can afford such an arrangement. Smaller in stitutions must either turn the work over to one of their officers or employees or make use of the services of some agency supplying a ready-made or specially prepared advertismg service for financial institutions.
Banlcs and trust companies which are most successful in their advertising usually make an annual appropriation in advance to cover all advertising expense, and this item of the budget is subdivided to meet the cost of these various divisions: Salary of advertising man ager, if one is employed.
SPace.—Newspapers, street cars, billboards, moving picture theatre, etc.
Copy.—To pay for the services of an ad vertising writer or for the work of advertising agencies in the preparation of the subject mat ter of the advertising.
this head are included the printing, engraving, lithographing, art work, etc., required in producing the bank's advertis ing matter.
It is difficult to lay down any hard-and-fast rule concerning how much a bank or trust company can legitimately spend for advertis ing. The trustees of mutual savings institu tions feel that they have no right to spend any of their depositors' money for this purpose. So they do practically no advertising at all. But other banks are spending a good deal of money in advertising. The sum differs accord ing to the amount of competition, the size of the bank and other local conditions. Investi gation has brought out the fact that the average advertising expenditure probably is about in the proportion of $1 for every $200 of deposits, that is, a bank with $2,000,000 deposits will spend $10,C00 a year in advertising.
The facts concerning a banking or fiduciary institution and the services it renders the pub lic that may properly be advertised include capital and surplus, governmental super vision, personnel of directorate and manage ment, physical protection, age and experience, interest on deposits, business or investment counsel, care of property, trusteeships, execu tion of wills, loans, discounts, certificates of deposits, banking by mail, foreign and domestic exchange business information, business refer ences, letters of credit, travelers' checks, col lections, courteous service, the necessity and rewards of thrift, the use of safe deposit boxes, co-operation with the government in war financing, etc.
The tried and approved media of bank advertising include daily and weekly news papers, financial journals and magazines, bank directories, street cars, billboards, moving pic ture theatre advertising, personal letters, fac simile letters, booklets, "house organs') (i.e., little regularly issued papers or magazines, either °syndicate& or especially prepared by the bank for free distribution), financial state ment folders, calendars, bank window cards, and a great variety of specialties, novelties or souvenirs.
Of late, a movement has been started toward the co-operative advertising of banks. That is, the banks of a city or county will get together and pool a certain proportion of their advertising appropriations and use the monr for a campaign of popular education in thrift or banlcing functions. Space is used in local newspapers or other media. In some cases the names of all the banks co-operating in the movement appear in connection with the ad vertising. In others, the articles are not signed but appear ab editorial matter.
Banks in some communities have formed banicing publicity associations for mutual ben efit, and a Financial Advertisers' Association was established in 1915 as a department of the powerful organization known as the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World.
Bibliography.— Holderness, M. E., 'Guide Posts to National Bank Publicity and Business Building) ; Lewis, E. St. Elmo, (Financial Ad vertising); MacGregor, T. D., (Pushing Your Business,' '2,000 Points for Financial Adver tising,'