BrandPartners Group Subsidiary Recognized for Outstanding Client Work In National Financial Services Advertising Awards

Business Wire, Nov 14, 2003

Business Editors

ROCHESTER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 2003

Willey Brothers Selected by American Bankers Association Affiliate for

Successes with Multiple Clients

Willey Brothers Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of BrandPartners Group (OTCBB: BPTR), a leading provider of fully integrated financial environments for the banking industry headquartered in Rochester, New Hampshire, was recently recognized for its work for three clients in the ABA Marketing Network's 2003 Advertising Awards, the premier advertising competition for the financial services industry.

The nationwide competition recognizes marketing innovation and creative excellence in the financial services industry. The ABA Marketing Network is an affiliate of the American Bankers Association. Willey Brothers was the only competitor to be recognized with multiple client awards.

The company received "Best of the Best" awards for a point-of-sale (POS) campaign for SunTrust Bank, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and a series of brochures for Lee Bank, headquartered in Lee, MA. Only 27 entries out of 518 received the Best of the Best award. Willey Brothers also received a "Certificate of Excellence" for a point-of-sale campaign for AmSouth Bank, based in Birmingham, AL.

"Willey Brothers is pleased to provide retail financial services expertise to our clients," said Eduardo Alvarez, managing director of Strategy and Design Services for Willey Brothers. "We work closely with clients to produce point-of-sale, collateral, branch environments and other services that are effective in moving our clients' business forward. We believe that these awards recognize the breadth of our experience."

SunTrust - POS Campaign

SunTrust Banks, Inc., is one of the nation's largest commercial banks with an extensive distribution network primarily in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia and selected markets nationally. In the campaign recognized by the ABA, Willey Brothers crafted an in-store campaign to raise awareness of SunTrust's full-service branches within grocery stores.

To stand out within the crowded visual store environment, the campaign took simple objects and replaced the expected brand logo with a SunTrust logo. A name-brand orange became a SunTrust orange. A bottle of liquid detergent became SunTrust detergent. A name-brand key became a SunTrust key.

"By combining these unexpected images with short, relevant and resonating copy, Willey Brothers was able to create an arresting communication for SunTrust that stood out among the sea of marketing messages," said Alvarez.

Lee Bank - Brochure Series

Lee Bank, located in the Berkshires of western MA, is a community bank with a diverse customer base of blue-collar workers, artists, professionals, wealthy part-time residents, students, tourists, among others. The bank asked Willey Brothers to define and unify its brand, design and build a new branch, and create a point-of-sale message system to communicate to its diverse customer base.

Willey Brothers conducted an ideation session for Lee Bank, which resulted in a brand blueprint identifying core values and attributes. "Working with Lee Bank, Willey Brothers developed a brand blueprint that led to a positioning of simple, direct and personal banking," said Alvarez. "Clarity was really at the brand foundation and that translated into clear thinking, direct relationships and simple banking. This theme also gave direction to the design, which employed images of light, glass and simplicity."

The unifying element in the diverse customer base seemed to be a love of the great outdoors, a main reason people choose to live in the Berkshires. This led to the ongoing point-of-sale campaign, "A Breath of Fresh Air." The award-winning product brochures were an extension of this theme, featuring clean, simple design and clear, uncomplicated copy.

AmSouth - POS Campaign

AmSouth is a leader among regional banks in the Southeast. For this award-winning campaign, Willey Brothers developed an enhanced point-of-sale platform at more than 600 branch locations that helped establish content control and a planned message hierarchy.

Reinforcing AmSouth's strong brand, Willey Brothers' communications and merchandising platform created a new model for communicating with customers at all touch points - whether traditional branches, remote locations, ATMs, Internet kiosks or other customer interaction opportunities. The platform is called, B.L.I.S.S., which stands for brand, lifestages (customer), information (and education), sales (promotion) and service (access).

"The B.L.I.S.S. program features specific messages that pair creative content with colorful imagery and bold typography," said Alvarez. The on-going implementation of the B.L.I.S.S. communications plan includes individual branch kits, which are distributed to each branch quarterly to support corporate and regional sales initiatives.

BrandPartners Group, Inc (www.bptr.com) operates through Willey Brothers, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, providing branch positioning and consulting, merchandising, branch planning and design, and creative services for financial services companies.