Banks to invest anew in self-promotions

If somehow you don't know the names of the two biggest banks in Florida, they're spending tens of millions of dollars to remind you.

Bank of America and the recently merged First Union/Wachovia are hardly strangers to Floridians. The Carolina institutions muscled their way into controlling about a third of Florida's deposits by gobbling up other banks.

Now comes the rejoined battle to keep those deposits.

Bank of America is first out of the gate, spending $70-million this spring and summer in its largest national ad campaign. The launch comes just a month after the Charlotte, N.C., megabank began a $30-million marketing blitz targeting Hispanics, Asian-Americans and African-Americans. Not to mention the $45-million it spent during the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City to get people to forget its old brand name (NationsBank).

Leading the bank's charge will be Cathy Bessant, who jumped to the corporate post at the end of last year after a stint running Bank of America's Florida operation out of Tampa.

First Union, Bank of America's crosstown rival in Charlotte, isn't far behind.

It's gearing up for a major ad blitz in the fall when it officially dumps the First Union name at its branches in favor of Wachovia. "We wanted to be pretty careful of only doing it when we convert to the new brand name so we don't confuse people," First Union (and soon-to-be Wachovia) spokeswoman Mary Beth Navarro said.

Wachovia's campaign will begin in Florida with the November name change and move north through other states. Navarro said it's too soon to talk about the scope or cost of the marketing effort. But a preview is imminent. First Union is within weeks of launching ads trumpeting the new name of its brokerage unit: Wachovia Securities.

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