Fifth Third Bank executives Kala Gibson, Stefanie Steward-Young, Jada Grandy Mock, and Keith Burgess, are laser-focused on providing economic development and economic mobility opportunities that improve historically disinvested communities and advance communities of color. While these highly accomplished Executives have excelled in their careers and made a tremendous impact in their communities, they all struggled to build and promote their personal brands intentionally. 

A Forbes article notes that less than “15% of people have defined their personal brand and less than 5% are living it consistently at work every day”. North Carolina-based agencies Latonya Evans Public Relations Agency (LEPR) and social media marketing company Diamond M.I.N.E. were tapped by Fifth Third to lead a public relations strategy and activation campaign for this initiative. 

LR Brand Consulting was engaged by Diamond M.I.N.E to position the executives’ brands to support their work at Fifth Third and help them establish themselves as well-recognized and respected influencers and industry experts.

Strategy and Execution

Founder and Chief Brand Strategist Lindrea Reynolds provided individual strategy sessions with each executive to better understand them and determine how to position their personal brands. In fact, one of the executives remarked that the session felt like “therapy”. After getting to know the executives better, the LR Brand Consulting team provided strategic personal branding guidance to develop their brand core, brand positioning, and brand persona.

Services included:

• Personal brand statement

• Personal mission

• Personal brand values

• High level priority audiences

• Messaging pillars

• LinkedIn engagement goals

• Voice and personality

• Tone

• Unique value proposition

Outcome

Our work helped the Fifth Third Bank executives position their brands for success, enabling them to develop and grow their brands for success. The branding position strategies created by our team were used by a LEPR and DMINE to create content - aligned with their engagement goals, audiences, and messaging pillars - to populate their respective LinkedIn profiles. Additionally, executives have become more active on LinkedIn and demonstrate a higher level of confidence using the platform to advance bank initiatives and their own personal goals. The executives are strategically implementing their own personal thought leadership campaigns on economic mobility to promote Fifth Third’s $32 billion commitment to investing in communities.