Bank of America in review

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It’s probably aimed at reversing the negative public opinion (and account losses) over those proposed and then-rescinded $5 debit card purchase user fees: B of A sent a memo 1/11 to several ad agencies it already works with, as well as others, saying it wants to rethink how it advertises to consumers taking note of the huge shifts in the economy (and its own performance) since 2005, the last time it reviewed its account.


Last year, Bank of America spent an estimated $300 million on advertising, down from $380 million in 2010. They didn’t have much of a budget for radio, as Media Monitors tells RBR-TVBR they did not make the top 300 radio advertisers last year. They came in #203 on the broadcast television side, with 68,381 spot run. For local cable, they came in at #102, with 213,762 spots.

The current brand positioning for Bank of America is expressed in a theme, “Bank of opportunity,” via Omnicom’s BBDO Worldwide. Other agencies that now work with Bank of America include Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies, and Digitas, part of the Publicis Groupe.

BBDO, Digitas and Hill, Holliday have all been invited to take part in the review. Also being invited in is WPP, the holding company that owns Brand Union, another agency that works for Bank of America, according to WSJ.

A decision in the review is expected by mid-April. The review does not include the media part of the Bank of America account, which is handled by another Publicis agency, Starcom.