Elevating the BlueShore Financial Brand

Lisa Chong

VP, Client Services

The Client

BlueShore Financial is a beloved local credit union that was founded over 80 years ago on Vancouver’s North Shore, in British Columbia. Originally known as North Shore Community Credit Union, it was chartered to serve blue-collar workers in the midst of World War 2. Rebranded in 2013 as BlueShore Financial, the credit union now provides personalized financial planning, everyday banking, wealth management, investments, mortgage, and insurance solutions to an increasingly affluent client base on the North Shore, Sea to Sky, and Vancouver areas. BlueShore invented the term Financial Wellness® and architected the first-of-its-kind Financial Spa®, demonstrating an elevated, forward-looking, holistic approach to financial services.

In 2021, BlueShore felt that its primarily outdoor visual brand was no longer reflecting the lifestyle of the diverse community that it serves today and the visual brand needed to evolve to better reflect the aspirational premium brand.  

The Brief

As an agency that embraces the West Coast lifestyle in Vancouver, York & Chapel’s approach resonated with the team at BlueShore and they tasked us to work with them on refreshing their brand. BlueShore wanted us to elevate its brand to resonate with the growing and diverse, affluent demographic in their trade areas. 

The refreshed visual brand and messaging needed to: 

• Articulate BlueShore’s full range of financial services
• Emphasize that BlueShore’s offering is personalized for each client with a team of expert advisors
• Evolve their visual brand to incorporate West Coast living beyond the outdoors
• Reflect the community’s respect for tradition, diversity, nature, and overall well-being including financial wellness

It also had to show that BlueShore understood the goals, aspirations, diversity, and interests of the community.

While working on the brief, we challenged ourselves to create a new look and feel that would be ownable and unexpected, uniquely BlueShore.

The Research

Through interviews and research (including secret branch visits), we discovered that BlueShore’s approach to building personal relationships and understanding what truly matters to each of its clients is the heart of its brand.

We learned that BlueShore aims to help its clients achieve their life goals through holistic Financial Wellness. They see financial services as a tool for their clients to live happier, more fulfilling lives. We also saw BlueShore’s roots in the West Coast as a unique opportunity to differentiate itself from other financial institutions.  

We knew this insight was key to unlocking the full creative potential of this brief.

The Concept

BlueShore’s highly personalized approach helps its clients achieve what is most important to them. However, wealth means something different to everyone.

As part of the creative development of this campaign, we posed a question:

What’s Your Wealthy?

But we framed this question in terms beyond material wealth. BlueShore’s financial services aren’t an end to themselves—instead, they give its clients the financial freedom to focus on what’s important to them, which could be their family, their love of music and dance, or enjoying their retirement years in their dream home. 

We felt that this expression of the idea was relevant to the target audience, was true to the BlueShore Financial brand, and could lend itself to dynamic, eye-catching creative executions.

Here’s a look at our first exploration of the concept:

The Execution

Imagine living out your life’s passions in a setting that is familiar, yet dream-like and surreal. 

We created aspirational scenes of people enjoying the life that ‘wealthy’ means to them and juxtaposed them in recognizable local settings. 

The West Coast settings represent BlueShore’s local roots and serves as a metaphor for BlueShore in the background supporting the individuals in the ads who are fulfilling their aspirations. 

The Final Creative

The first campaign was rolled out across all local media in May 2022, appearing in several print magazines, OOH displays, online display ads, TV, and radio. A second campaign with additional scenes was rolled out in October. Here’s a look at some of the final creative. 

Transit Shelter Ads

First Campaign

Second Campaign

TV Commercial

The TV ad starts with close-ups gradually opening to reveal each scene with its subjects in unlikely settings. And to fully immerse the audience, we composed an uplifting, cinematic, orchestral soundtrack that builds along with sounds from each scene. 

The Results

It’s still early to measure the full impact of the brand refresh. However, the initial response to the refreshed brand and messaging has been encouraging. Early survey results indicate the campaign is helping to drive interest in BlueShore vs. other financial institutions, as well as communicating differentiation effectively – both seen by sizable shifts vs. industry benchmarks.

“Our clients and employees share with us their excitement whenever they see our ads. They tell us the ads are visually stunning and resonate with them from a values and personal goals perspective. They are not ads you would expect from a financial institution,” says Armita Alikhani, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at BlueShore Financial.

“From their pitch to every creative presentation following, York & Chapel proved they understood us and how we wanted our audience to perceive us. They brought forward ideas that captured our vision, yet were still grounded in BlueShore’s core message and authentic voice. We are very pleased with the resulting campaign and are excited to continue our work together.” 

BlueShore Financial inspired us with their passion for their clients and we are grateful for the freedom we were given to push the creative boundaries of conventional financial services marketing.

A huge thanks to everyone who helped make this fantastic campaign a reality!