platoon of Bank of America Corp.-branded Segways wheeled through Manhattan. Branded double-decker sightseeing buses, carrying live bands and cheerleaders, crisscrossed downtown New York. And the New York Stock Exchange looked as if Bank of America (BAC) was running the show.

The occasion? BAC was launching its latest offering — the $0 Online Equity Trade, which allows customers with at least $250,000 at the bank to make online trades with no fees. On Oct. 11, 2006, BAC staged a blitz event in New York’s financial district and much of Manhattan to trumpet its announcement of the new service.

The launch was an important strategic move for BAC, as the service would help the bank position itself as a total financial-solutions provider, including both banking and investing. The bank wanted to create an event that would make a bold, competitive statement in the industry and increase brand awareness. Its goal was to generate 180 million media impressions and to initiate face-to-face interaction with more than 400,000 people in New York.

AT A GLANCE Corporate Objectives: Launch a new product, elevate the Bank of America Corp. brand, and position the company as a total financial-solutions provider. Strategy: Create a one-day blitz event in New York to attract media attention and build public awareness. Tactics: Ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange opening, fill the streets with brand ambassadors, and set up an interactive exhibit in Bryant Park. Results: Generated close to 180 media mentions (an estimated 265 million impressions), and nearly 500,000 face-to-face interactions.

BAC worked with New York-based event agency Concentric Communications to create a three-part attack: 1. It set up an interactive client experience in Bryant Park dubbed the Zero Zone. 2. BAC executives rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, and the bank wrapped the Stock Exchange building in bright-red banners branded with the BAC logo and oversized zeros. 3. Brand ambassadors took to the streets to spread the word about the new product.

“It was a blitz on New York to introduce $0 trading,” says Brad Shaw, vice president of events for Concentric Communications. “It was an invasion; it was like Normandy.”

The opening bell

BAC began the day-long event by ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. A 30-by-70-foot banner hung over the front doors of the exchange bearing the message “Introducing Online Equity Trades,” while below it a 10-by-90-foot banner with a large “$0” wrapped around the front of the building. An estimated 100 million people watched the bell ringing at the Stock Exchange through live broadcasts during financial programming on CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, and other television-news channels.

In Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, the Zero Zone, a 40-by-80-foot freestanding exhibit, sprang up like a mushroom overnight. BAC chose the location because New Yorkers flock to the park for its flower gardens, its lawn area, and its proximity to the public library. “There are certain key locations in New York City where you can hold events and get public awareness. Bryant Park is one of those,” Shaw says. “So many people walk through it every day. In nice weather, it’s full.”

The park was particularly relevant for Bank of America because it is constructing a new, environmentally friendly, “green” building across the street from the park.

The red exhibit, which was visible from the street, was flanked by two large sculptures of giant zeros with dollar signs. Two 18-by-18-foot and four 6-by-18-foot LED screens hanging on the outside of the exhibit broadcast the Stock Exchange bell-ringing live and then ran event footage and video loops about the new service throughout the rest of the day. A running LED stock ticker crawled across the top of the exhibit.

Inside, senior bank executives acted as teachers, guides, and spokespersons as they explained and answered questions about online equity trading. They also met one-on-one with attendees at tables designed for that purpose. Attendees could test their knowledge of financial facts at computer kiosks throughout the exhibit. As a takeaway, they could get their picture taken in front of a giant green screen, pick one of six financially themed backgrounds to superimpose behind them, and take the customized photograph home with them in a BAC-branded frame. BAC also gave away branded T-shirts.

Attendance at the Zero Zone beat BAC’s goal of 2,000 by 20 percent, attracting 2,400 visitors. Although BAC expected another 100,000 to walk by the branded building as they passed through the park, the actual number was close to 145,000, according to designated staffers who hand-counted the throngs throughout the day.

street cred

Bank representatives also took to the streets: 100 brand ambassadors stationed at high-traffic locations in Manhattan, such as Penn Station, Grand Central Station, and Times Square, handed out branded giveaways, including M&Ms, Starbucks and iTunes gift cards, computer brushes, foam stress-ball caps, can coolers, mini-clip lights, and T-shirts.

To transport the ambassadors around the city, Bank of America hired three double-decker buses. But these buses were not just utilitarian — they also served as another marketing vehicle for BAC. The bank treated them as moving billboards, covering them in red Bank of America graphics, with messaging about the new product. To make them stand out even more, it hired brass bands to ride on the open, top level of the buses and play loudly as they traversed the city.

In addition to the ambassadors who hoofed through the streets, 24 spokespeople cruised Manhattan on eye-catching Segways, wrapped in trademark-red signage and resembling modern-day chariots. Another 50 spokespeople wore vests embedded with computer screens, transforming them into human kiosks. They approached people on the street and invited them to participate in an interactive survey that tested their financial knowledge.

The blitz-event results nearly doubled BAC’s expectations, according to Corin Gutteridge, a strategist for Concentric Communications. The Associated Press, Reuters, and AFX International Newswire news services carried stories about the event, and the news of the $0 trade service was picked up by media across the globe.

National news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Business Week online, Forbes.com, and USA Today published information about the service and the event, and newspapers and local television networks in more than 30 states featured items that mentioned BAC, the $0 trading service, and the event. In total, BAC amassed about 180 media mentions — including print, online, and broadcast media — resulting in approximately 265 million media impressions.

The 200 street-team members, including the crews on the sightseeing buses, the Segway riders, and the living kiosks kicked the numbers even higher. They interacted with 450,000 people during the day, with the count estimated by the number of giveaways the street team distributed — more than 640,000 total. New Yorkers continued to get the message as the sightseeing buses branded with BAC’s logo and the giant $0 graphic extended their run for two months after the event.

By the end of 2006, BAC calculated that media impressions sparked by the Manhattan mega blitz event numbered more than 300 million across the world, marking the invasion of America’s most populous island a successful campaign. e