The Huntington National Bank taps CMO amid significant spend increases (Score 64)

Sales Lead: Vijay Konduru became the EVP and CMO at The Huntington National Bank in June 2023.

• Konduru joined from Extra Card, where he was the CMO and head of customer success.
• Now, he leads Huntington's marketing organization, which involves marketing strategy and long-term vision.
  • Konduru's responsibilities include marketing operations, competitive intelligence, transformation, digital marketing acquisition, and customer communications.
• The company will likely:
  • Shift strategy
  • Continue increasing spend
  • Conduct agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • A wide but male-skewed target demographic ranging from Gen-Z through Gen-X

Additional recent leadership shifts:

• The same month, Huntington named Lauren Geiser as its digital marketing display AVP and manager.
  • Previously the senior social and display analyst at Bath & Body Works, Geiser now strategies and executes digital campaign strategies for Huntington across paid social and programmatic display.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, Huntington has spent around $4.3k on national TV commercials, a huge increase from the merely $800 spent within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The brand spent approximately $15k on this channel in 2022 after having spent exponentially less, approximately $1.6k, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Huntington's 2023 commercials have targeted the male-skewed audience of shows such as MLB Baseball, NHL Hockey, NBA Basketball, To Be Announced, and Game of the Day.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The brand has allocated roughly $13.8m toward digital ads YTD, 52% more than the roughly $9.1m allocated by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, Huntington has earned ~1.7b digital impressions, 43% via Facebook ads, 40% via Instagram ads, and 16% via YouTube ads.
  • Last year: The brand's estimated full-year 2022 spend increased by 28% to $16.7m from that of $13m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • Huntington utilizes Google Ads along with print (newspapers), radio, local broadcast, OOH, digital, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and online video (via Youtube Android, Youtube.com, and Youtube IOS) ads.
  • The brand holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1.
  • Huntington also invests in sponsorship partners such as the Columbus Blue Jackets and Indianapolis Colts.
  • Its parent company, Huntington Bancshares, sponsors podcasts such as Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Reach out soon to see if Huntington kicks off a search for new agency partners following Konduru's appointment.
• Current agency roster:
  • Arnold Worldwide: Creative agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; sponsorship partner insights by Relo Metrics; podcast insights by Podchaser.