CBO Financial

HISTORY
CBO Financial had a wonderful story to tell; unfortunately their voice was so garbled that the impression it left was pretty much, “Wah wah wah,” à la the teacher from the Peanuts TV specials. CBO helps social service organizations develop and finance new facility projects to revitalize communities and benefit populations in need. Having garnered $500 million in New Markets Tax Credits, CBO needed to communicate its financial and tax credit expertise without appearing too corporate or out of touch with the day-to-day experience of those in the trenches. Conversely, CBO needed to project a level of respectability and trustworthiness to governmental and financial institutions likely to invest in their programs. Trying to be all things to both groups had previously left them with an outdated identity suite which communicated to neither audience.

TREATMENT I: Logo
By working with the in-house marketing team to distill their message, the true offering emerged: CBO assists facilities serving down on their luck neighborhoods in the hopes that it will start a domino effect, bringing these communities back from the brink. Considering how many ruined neighborhoods CBO has helped return from the ashes, there was only one visual which made sense: the phoenix.

TREATMENT II: Collateral
CBO’s vocation is carried through each of its marketing pieces, many of them with the campaign’s headline, “You see challenges. We see possibilities. Your community sees change.” Even when that message isn’t written, the hope it contains is still implied; the holiday card shows an image of three warmly lit luminaries, one emblazoned with the CBO phoenix.

The work we created includes the following: business papers, marketing kit design/writing, direct mail design/writing, holiday card, website design/writing, newsletter design/writing, trade show booth and presentation materials.