Thread by @Camp4

Sometimes when I’m not on Twitter I do real work. Lately I’ve been helping a bank in Hawaii transform into a modern, digital-first bank w/ the ultimate goal of taking the mainland by storm (& expanding our market 300X 📈).

Here's the inside story of our journey so far.

👇👇👇

First a quick background.

Central Pacific Bank has one of the *best origin stories* I’ve ever heard:

CPB was founded in 1954 by a group of WWII veterans. The idea was to serve local families & businesses who had been ignored by the banking establishment.

Just imagine being Japanese and living in HI after Pearl Harbor.

When the time came to raise capital, local bankers laughed at the idea. But local investors poured in, with many purchasing just $100 worth of stock. Within a week the bank was capitalized.

Fast forward 67 years and CPB is a $6B asset public bank and beloved brand in HI. To say the bank is focused on service is a massive understatement. When I first visited I asked about Net Promoter Scores and was quoted a score of 90 🤯.

I didn’t believe it until I conducted focus groups and heard customer after customer describe CPB as part of their ohana (family).

Here's why that matters: Like many banks, CPB ran into financial trouble during the 2007 housing crisis due to a large loan portfolio in CA...

At another bank there might have been a run on deposits, but CPB customers kept their money in. Legendary bank CEO John Dean, who stepped in to turn the bank around, would tell you it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of tens of thousands of loyal customers.

🚀 Now it’s time to modernize CPB for the digital age and go after *the other 99.7% of the US banking market*. It starts with a brand refresh and tech platform overhaul...

CPB has nearly 100% brand recognition in Hawaii, so we didn’t consider a name change but the visual identity is completely new. It was created by @phenomenon, IMO the best brand strategy firm in the US.

The idea was to double down on CPB’s legacy of exceptional service and deep roots in Hawaii but translate it to the digital world.

Let’s face it - most bank (and neobank) brands aren't great.
They're visually uninspiring and based on the same tired tropes.

We wanted to bring warmth and humanity and beauty to a category that is utterly lacking in those qualities.

The new look is inspired by mid-century design, which is prevalent in Hawaii. The new CPB word mark is an adaptation of a logo the bank used in 1961 - simple but strong.

Our vibrant new color palette was drawn from the natural beauty of the islands and includes swell, sand, plumeria, and hibiscus.

The design system features custom illustrations of native elements. The visual identity is fresh and modern but honors the bank’s past. It’s a unique, ownable look that will set CPB apart from countless neobank clones.

We went to great lengths (and made countless changes) to make sure the illustrations are authentic to HI, down to the last detail.

My personal favorite illustration is our take on the famous Japanese Maneki Neko. CPB's lucky cat rocks a 🤙& 😎.

Great brands are built from the inside out, so every single employee (800+) participated in a brand workshop where we collected feedback, explored our values, and challenged teams to rethink the way they work.

Along the way, we built a product team in Boulder. In addition to creating our beautiful new app (which took CPB's App Store rating from <3 to 4.7), the team is building a Stripe-like API layer and some amazing new products.

To build awareness of our transformation, we created a series of video ads for TV and digital. I rarely use TV as a primary marketing channel these days, but Hawaii is one of the few markets where lots of people still watch network TV.

Phenomenon came up with a brilliant campaign concept to marry our new visual identity with the unscripted voices of real customers, who tell simple stories that demonstrate why CPB is “Where People Like Banking”.

The ads are heart-warming and eye-catching and unexpected for the category.

Here's one of our 30 second ads.

Here's one of our shorter 15 second ads. Note that even the catchy audio signature at the end of each ad was an unplanned moment that was captured in a customer interview.

And here's a very short 6 second ad for digital.

Lastly, we commissioned an iconic work of art for our redesigned HQ in the heart of downtown Honolulu. “Kai” is a kinetic sculpture made of 48 computer-controlled rain sticks, connected to real time wave data from buoys off Oahu’s north shore. It’s a must-see for art enthusiasts.

Art is an underutilized agent of change within organizations. It signals a commitment to design and is a physical manifestation of the brand.

The pandemic dramatically accelerated remote & hybrid work so we converted the lobby of our HQ into a coworking space with Starbucks and local brewer Aloha Beer. To the many small businesses in HI who are struggling to survive the pandemic, we say, “Our office is your office.”

This is the first small step toward a big vision and lots of hard work lies ahead. I'll report back with some exciting product announcements soon.

A big mahalo to my team who does the real work while I write about it.

🤙