LAS VEGAS – The theme that emerged on the first day of TheFinancial Brand Forum 2014 was that delivering on your brand isless about budget and more about identifying what makes yourorganization unique and sometimes, embracing the weird.

Lani Hayward, EVP of creative strategies at the $11.6 billionUmpqua Bank, shared during her Thursday morning speaking sessionhow the Portland firm built its contemporary brand that combineslocal community with urban chic. What makes the world's greatestbank tick, she said, is that regardless of size, it's essentially aborderless community bank with an intentional consumer brand.

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What that means is every interaction, experience and person,whether employee or customer matters, is reflected and supported inthe culture.

“Find a sustained value proposition you can rally around.Harness the organization's DNA and culture to design a purposebuilt brand,” Hayward said. “When the culture of a company and theoutward facing brand align, you have something to market.”

Umpqua has been successfully building a culture around serviceand innovation, taking cues from retail to form new sustainablestrategies on a marketing budget that is far below the industryaverage.

Read more: Find out what those guys in the photo attop are doing …

Her best practices advice included early morning marshmallowfights (pictured on previous page) andbranches that display and sell products created by local businesses(pictured above), to making ATMvestibules spaces where customers can learn what makes theirneighborhood unique.

“We have some people who might walk by and now want to walk intothe ATM vestibule to find out what's that painting and storyabout,” said Hayward. “If you come in then we want to be the bestpart of your day and you can't look at the branch and digitalexperience from two different silos anymore. It's about bridgingphysical with digital until there is no gap at all.”

Read more: Afternoon breakout session featuresanother uniquely branded institution …

Since Sunova Credit Union in Canada launched a quirky new brandin 2008, its assets have nearly doubled to $1.1 billion, andmembership has swelled to 31,250 members.

Sunova credits embracing the weird, and trying new things thatsupport and further enhance strategy. From employing St. Bernardsas greeters, to human resources personnel personally contacting alljob applicants (as shown above), even ifonly a few are selected to interview for open positions. Sunovafinds innovative, fun, quirky ways that stay true to its brand.

“If everyone else is doing it we go the other way,” saidVanessa Foster, director of marketing at Sunova. “If you are goingto differentiate your brand own it and make sure everyone knows it.Great service is not a differentiator but how you define greatservice is.”

Echoing the theme of most great brands, she added it all startswith the culture.

“Banking is just the beginning; our employee engagement is keyto our brand success,” said Alexandra Rachey, marketingcoordinator, Sunova. “We invest as much, if not more time withinternal marketing of staff as members, because their engagementand buy-in is critical.”