Umpqua Bank

Content Creation – Message Strategy – Creative Direction – Insights & Ideation – Digital Assets – Video Production – Off-sites & Events 

Umpqua Bank hired me for various projects related to their internal and external communications. Projects include:

  • Creative Direction for Annual Employee Celebration Videos

  • Script writing for Celebration of Excellence annual awards ceremony opening video

  • Brand Sharing Program Assessment

  • Training Module Design for Pilot Digital Banking program

  • Led a bio writing workshop

Highlighted Project: San Francisco Team Offsite

Challenge: Inspire the team and refresh internal brand awareness. 
Solution: An off-site exploring the intersection of human and digital service.

Umpqua Bank initially came to me for idea generation. They wanted to create an experience that would surprise and delight their team, and wake them to new opportunities and possibilities for their brand. My ideas excited leadership enough that they then hired me to design, produce, and facilitate the entire meeting. What resulted was a morning of meetings followed by an afternoon of team field trips and subsequent team sharing.

During the first half of the day we heard from speakers including the bank’s CEO, Ray Davis, and a consumer experience expert from the leading design agency IDEO, and engaged in some team visioning exercises that broke down barriers and got people thinking. After lunch, people broke into teams of four, and were sent off to various experiences in food, retail, art, and hotel to explore the differences and benefits of both human and digital interactions. Teams were given print materials to record and explore their learnings. Teams traveled via Uber (which was new at the time). At the end of the day all teams returned to share their experiences and takeaways with their peers. Participants commented that it was the best off-site they’d ever attended.

  • Food: Team went to Blue Bottle Coffee or The Melt and recorded their experiences with human craft coffee versus ordering and picking up food via an app.

  • Retail: Teams either went to Nike to run on a treadmill to identify the best pair of shoes for their gait, or to Apple where they had to make a $100 purchase via Apple’s self-checkout app.

  • Art: Teams went to either a local art gallery and observed art with and without the gallery director, or SFMOMA where they experienced art via docent and interactive kiosks.

  • Hotel: All teams ended their days at either The Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton hotel bar, where they ordered cocktails/mocktails and noted the level of service and presentation.

Highlighted Video: Opening video for the Bank’s COE after they acquired Sterling Savings.

 

I wrote the V.O. script for this video produced by Henry V in Portland, OR. It was featured at Umpqua Bank’s annual Celebration of Excellence awards.

 

 

Ashley Kaiser