Giving a bank more for its money
Copywriting and strategy for PNC campaigns across retirement planning, seasonal client communications, student banking, and home equity.
Email reopens
Email forwards
Campaign lines of business
PNC Bank needed to differentiate itself from new banks and fintech competitors while speaking to customers across multiple generations, financial goals, and lines of business.
- 01
Translated financial uncertainty into empathetic, action-oriented copy for retirement planning direct mail.
- 02
Built modular Thanksgiving email concepts with subject lines, supers, and conversation-starting content.
- 03
Extended campaign thinking into student banking and home equity creative across direct mail and email.
A closer look at the PNC work.
PNC Investments · Retirement direct mail
Evolving the 2022 retirement mailer into a warmer 2023 concept.
The team reviewed the 2022 retirement direct mail and used the insight to refresh the campaign around empathy, confidence, and a more optimistic invitation to plan. The evolved creative centers a Black woman doing what she loves, shifting the story away from fear and toward the joy retirement planning can protect.
The new campaign used inclusive imagery, first-person emotional framing, and a benefit-led headline to make retirement planning feel more human and less intimidating.
PNC Investments · Thanksgiving email
Turning a thank-you email into a modular engagement campaign.
PNC Investments asked for a Thanksgiving email to thank clients and wish them well. The response expanded the assignment into multiple seasonal concepts with subject lines, super subject lines, and conversation-starter content that could give the email more reason to be opened, reopened, and forwarded.
PNC selected every option presented. In testing, the strongest direction was reopened four times as often and forwarded six times more.
PNC Bank · Student banking direct mail
Making student banking feel useful before it feels like banking.
For student audiences, the work translated banking features into direct-mail concepts built around school pride, control, and everyday financial confidence. The creative explored how PNC Virtual Wallet Student could show up across school-specific formats and direct mail executions.
The client selected concept one, the bifold self-mailer, after reviewing three concepts and multiple format applications.
PNC Bank · Home equity line of credit
Connecting home equity to real household projects.
The home equity work positioned PNC Choice Home Equity Line of Credit around tangible improvement moments: renovations, repairs, upgrades, and the everyday projects homeowners already imagine. The creative extended across digital and social placements with direct, product-led messaging.
The campaign system included multiple display and social formats, including Pinterest executions built around home improvement intent.
“The work moved financial copy away from fear and toward clarity, confidence, and useful next steps.”
Portfolio note
PNC selected the team’s concepts across multiple campaigns. In the Thanksgiving test, one direction drove four times more reopens and six times more forwards within two weeks.