Each year, the American Bankers Association (ABA) recognizes the nation’s best bank marketing initiatives during its ABA Bank Marketing Conference. This year’s Brand Slam awards honored elite bank marketing strategies that stood out among hundreds of nationwide entries from banks of all sizes.

Durant, Oklahoma-based First United Bank, which has 40 branches in North and Central Texas, was recognized as ABA’s 2022 Brand Slam award winner in the integrated marketing campaign category for its “First United Bank: United Acts of Kindness” campaign. This category recognizes a bank that has launched a product, promoted a service or set out to market a particular line of business using multichannel tactics. A panel of more than 50 financial marketing experts reviewed the applications and judged them based on concept, strategy, creativity, execution and impact.

First United Bank’s “United Acts of Kindness” campaign objective was to increase the amount of kindness in the communities it serves by activating and tracking a goal of 100,000 acts of kindness in 24 hours during the National Day of Kindness. The campaign used multiple integrated traditional and non-traditional marketing channels—including human, retail, digital and broadcast—and eclipsed its goal thrice with more than 300,000 acts of kindness logged during the February 17, 2022, event.

“I am so proud of our marketing team. Their campaign work supporting ‘United Acts of Kindness’ is officially the best in the country,” says Jade Metcalf, senior vice president and director of marketing. “This is an excellent example of how unique our brand is in the marketplace and what can happen when we prioritize serving our communities. Special thanks to our community banks for fully engaging with [the initiative]—it really helped bring the award application to life.”

Established in 1900, First United Bank has more than 95 bank, mortgage and insurance locations throughout Oklahoma and Texas.