Company: Bankrate, New York, NY
Company Description: Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator and distributor of personal finance content. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing - Consumer Services

Nomination Title: Bankrate: Checking Fees Continue to Rise

Tell the story about this nominated campaign since January 1 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Bankrate.com’s 15th annual checking survey was its best yet. The company’s proprietary research was featured on the front page (above the fold) of the Wall Street Journal on the announcement date (September 24, 2012). The checking survey was also covered by CNN, CNBC, The Today Show (NBC), ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS This Morning, the Associated Press, the New York Times, National Public Radio, USA Today and many, many others. Bankrate received 8,459 media mentions during the week of September 24 (2,169 print/online and 6,290 broadcast, including syndication).

Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) is a financial news and advice website. Its annual checking survey examines checking account, ATM and overdraft fees. The proprietary research was conducted by Bankrate’s market analysis department; they surveyed 10 banks and thrifts in each of 25 large U.S. markets. The Bankrate public relations team used this data to secure impactful coverage which educated consumers and encouraged them to visit Bankrate.com.

Public relations is important to Bankrate because it drives a considerable amount of consumer traffic to Bankrate.com. Approximately 45% of the traffic to Bankrate.com and its affiliated sites is organic, and PR is a key component of that. The website is free to consumers, so the company makes money by selling advertising (and the public relations team contributes by raising the amount of site traffic and the quality of the traffic). Securing high-quality media placements such as these – which included 37 interviews with Bankrate’s senior financial analyst, Greg McBride, during the week of September 24 – also adds significant credibility to the company’s efforts.

The Bankrate PR team’s approach to publicizing the checking study began by securing a high-profile placement in advance of the announcement date. In this case, the PR team drew up a short list of candidates and determined that the Wall Street Journal was its top target because of the newspaper’s high circulation and prominent stature within the financial community. Bankrate leveraged its contacts at the Wall Street Journal and quickly secured the newspaper’s interest in covering the checking survey.

In addition to the value of the Wall Street Journal article itself, a secondary goal of the placement was to amplify the PR team’s outreach efforts on the announcement date. The Bankrate PR team hypothesized that other media would see the Wall Street Journal article and that it would inspire them to cover the announcement as well. This theory proved to be accurate: the PR team’s day-of outreach to thousands of relevant media contacts and the additional boost provided by the Wall Street Journal story resulted in over 8,000 media mentions during a single week.

Because the checking study included local data (from 25 major U.S. markets) in addition to the national findings, local print, radio and TV outlets were also key targets for the Bankrate PR team. The local outreach was extremely successful as well, including mentions on 728 local TV affiliates; articles in major local/regional newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Washington Post; and appearances on radio stations in large cities such as San Francisco and Dallas.

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this campaign:

Bruce Zanca is a Senior Vice President and the Chief Marketing/Communications Officer at Bankrate, Inc. Earlier in his career, he held the top communications and investor relations posts at GeoCities, Inc. and Official Payments Corporation. From 1995 to 1998, he was Vice President of Corporate Communications for U.S. News & World Report. Mr. Zanca also served as a White House spokesman and deputy to Marlin Fitzwater under President George H.W. Bush.

.