REV: APRIL 20, 2012
SUNIL GUPTA
JOSEPH DAVIES-GAVIN
BBVA Compass: Marketing Resource Allocation
In December 2010, Frank Sottosanti, chief marketing officer of BBVA Compass, was discussing the allocation of the bank’s marketing budget with Sheiludis Moyett, director of brand and corporate advertising, and Chris Armstrong, advertising manager, along with Sharon Bernstein, director of insights, and Robert Galietti, group account director, both from the bank’s media agency Media
Contacts, the interactive arm of Havas, a global advertising and communications services group.
BBVA Compass was the fifteenth-largest bank in the U.S., with a predominant presence in the
Sunbelt region stretching from California to Florida. It was part of the BBVA Group from Spain, a financial service provider with $755 billion in assets and operations in more than 30 countries. “The current economy and the recent financial crisis have put a lot of stress on every bank,” said
Sottosanti, after welcoming everyone. “We are fortunate to have BBVA as a profitable and stable parent company. However, in each of our markets, we compete with large U.S. banks such as Bank of
America (BoA) and JPMorgan Chase, so we need to ensure that our marketing dollars are being used effectively. The goal of this meeting is to review our current performance and allocate our next year’s marketing budget across various offline and online channels.”
U.S. Banking Industry1
In 2010, the U.S. banking market remained fragmented, with more than 15,000 banks and credit unions vying for $10 trillion in deposits. The financial crisis had fueled growth in consumer savings rates as consumers reined in spending and banks fought fiercely for deposits to meet funding needs and increase wallet share. In 2009, the 10 largest banks accounted for 46.4% of total deposits, with the largest bank being BoA, followed by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo.
Revenues in retail banking were