It started with a viral marketing video that would either take the blogosphere by storm or tank into obscurity. A young, freckled boy with dirty blond hair tells his parents at dinner, "The economy's not what it used to be. It's time to start my own thing."

His "thing" turns out to be a lemonade stand—the original small business. In subsequent scenes, the boy tests lemonade recipes, looks under the couch for spare coins to use as startup money and presents a colorful business plan on an over-sized piece of paper. He then goes to Umpqua Bank and speaks with a loan officer, who approves a loan for the lemonade stand because, "There's no way I could say no."

Ultimately, the boy gets his lemonade stand up and running, the dollars pour in and he's able to purchase a car—albeit a toy car.

Dubbed "The Lemonaire," this viral video was produced by the marketing team at Umpqua Bank, an Oregon bank famous for nontraditional marketing and customer service. You can still view the video online at http://www.lemonaire.com/.

It was a risky, big-budget stunt for a regional bank. Budgeted at nearly a million dollars according to a New York Times article, the video and additional advertising and marketing efforts would be a huge waste if it didn't catch on.

It was the summer of 2007. Fears of a serious economic recession were being whispered on Wall Street and in the media. Millions worried about their job security and wondered if they, too, would soon have to face up to the reality that it may be time to start their "own thing."

With nearly 70 percent of Umpqua's deposits and loans coming from small and medium-size businesses, they hoped the metaphor of a lemonade stand would resonate with potential clients. If not, they would be out a lot of money for a cute video and some expensive traditional advertising and guerilla marketing.

Luckily, they didn't bank on the video and marketing alone. Umpqua brought in Oregon-based PR firm Lane PR to drive media publicity for the video in addition to promote Umpqua's services for small businesses. But with just two weeks until launch, the Lane team had to act immediately.

The challenge: Drive a big-budget marketing stunt with huge media publicity. "The idea was to create a campaign that would engage consumers and small to mid-sized business owners in an authentic way," says Lane PR vice president Eve Callahan. "This was not to be just another checking account campaign. We had to speak directly to our audiences and get them excited about Umpqua."

But before diving into the campaign, Callahan and the Lane team had to take into account the way Umpqua does business. It considers itself a "retailer" instead of a bank, for example. And branches offer free Wi-Fi access, Umpqua-branded coffee, sewing groups, yoga classes and movie nights.

"Umpqua had moved away from traditional advertising and into what they now call 'handshake marketing,'" Callahan explains. "This involves active engagement with the community. Umpqua representatives go out and engage people where they live, shop and work. For example, an associate might go to a nearby coffee shop and buy coffee for everyone standing in line. There's no sales pitch"—just the gesture of good faith, Callahan says.

Such a pleasantly in-your-face approach functions to "get people engaged in conversation" about Umpqua, she says.

The Lemonaire campaign, however, was much larger in scope than Umpqua's previous "handshake marketing" efforts. In addition to the viral video, Umpqua distributed 2,100 lemonade stand kits to any kid who wanted to start a lemonade stand. The kits came complete with tablecloths, how-to business booklets, Umpqua-branded cups and napkins, signage and $10 in start-up capital.

However, "There was still a limited advertising budget," Callahan says. "This meant that PR was the driving force behind creating buzz and excitement."

The strategy: A targeted media approach—and desk-scale Lemonade stands for news anchors and reporters. The Lane team immediately established several goals and broke the campaign into a multi-tiered, segmented media initiative: "One component involved reaching out to regional and national business media on stories related to Umpqua's commitment to small and mid-sized businesses," Callahan says. "Another component focused exclusively on the unique marketing angles."

They then produced two separate press releases: "One was for national business media and trades focused on business and the metaphor of the lemonade stand. The second focused on the marketing and advertising initiative."

The key to success was this perfect combination of "strategy and creativity," she says. "Even when you have a limited timeframe and budget, you have to understand who your audience is and communicate with them in a way that will break through the existing news cycle and help them see the bigger picture."

In addition, "You also have to do your homework: Know the journalist and make sure you have a story idea that works for each individual journalist."

The final icing on the cake was a clever, visual mailer the Lane team created and distributed to 120 top media outlets: "Each mailer included the launch press release, a guide on how to become a Lemonaire and custom popsicle sticks so that reporters could make their own desk-scale lemonade stands," Callahan says. "These were a huge hit, especially with broadcast media, which featured shots of their anchors next to their mini desk lemonade stands. It really spoke to people."

The results: Huge media impressions drive more than $100 million in new Umpqua deposits. In addition to sparking more than 2,100 start-up lemonade companies, the "Lemonaire" campaign scored key media placements, including an exclusive piece in Stuart Elliot's New York Times advertising column as well as hits in the AP, American Banker, Brandweek, U.S. Banker, The Seattle Times, The Sacramento Bee and more.

"In a four-week period, we generated more than 60 placements in all target publications and markets," Callahan says. But that's not all: After the campaign, Umpqua saw an increase of more than $100 million in new deposits.

"The website had a great video," Callahan says. "But the real driving force behind this campaign was the media coverage we generated that allowed the viral buzz to grow and led to more than $100 million in new deposits. I'm so proud of this campaign. It was a great example of doing great work, working hard and having an enormous amount of fun. I love to see campaigns that are successful and engaging for the people who worked on it."

Secrets for success: Read on as Callahan offers more tips and explains why this campaign won Gold in Investment, Banking and Financial Services at the 2008 Bulldog Awards for excellence in Media Relations & Publicity:

1. Stay true to your brand and audience: Build great ideas around concepts that will resonate with your brand and target audiences. "Start with a great idea," she says. "The key is, it has to be authentic to the company you're working for and the kinds of results they're aiming to get. In this case, so many people—especially those running small businesses—can relate and connect with a lemonade stand. It's something you remember from childhood." The metaphor of a lemonade stand was relevant to Umpqua's brand and its audiences. As Callahan mentioned, this combination of strategy and creativity made it the perfect idea.

2. Take calculated risks based on your client's key company differentiators. "Be willing to take a chance," she stresses. "Put a creative element in there that may be a departure but that can break through and stand out. Most companies have something they're doing that's a little different and also authentic. Will a lemonade stand work for every company? No. However, every company is doing something interesting and different, or else they probably wouldn't be in business. It's all about finding that nugget and thinking carefully about your audiences, and finding a way to resonate with them. In addition, there's always different ways to spin old ideas, or take an idea you've seen another company do and make fresh or different."

3. Buff up your PR program with real-life, person-to-person "handshake marketing" efforts. "We also combined the media coverage with great local events involving the lemonade stand," she says. "We created a competition for children and invited on-air personalities to see it for themselves. We then packaged those results into success stories from the kids who were really successful with their stands. From there, we could go back to media who hadn't picked us up the first time and demonstrate that this campaign really had legs."

4. Bolster online outreach with tried-and-true traditional media: Keep "old" media in mind even as you race forward into the new-media galaxy. "As the media environment changes so quickly, it's easy to write off the traditional media outlets," she says. "It's important to integrate and use new channels, but don't forget the importance of engaging with traditional outlets at the same time. They cannot be overlooked."

WINNER'S PROFILE: Lane PR provides integrated marketing and public relations services with a strong emphasis on client service. Today, the firm has 25 employees and offices in Portland and New York. The agency has been recognized repeatedly with top industry awards.