Marketing to a divided nation: What the urban-rural rift means for brand strategy

Campaign Red's latest report examines the growing divide between advertisers and American communities — and where rural and urban consumers diverge most.

Campaign US | March 30, 2026

by Jessica Heygate

 

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When Familiar Creatures was tasked with differentiating Kilmarnock, Virginia-based regional bank Chesapeake Bank from its competitors, the agency set off drilling down into what makes its coastal location unique.

"The Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia is a unique area with shipping and oysters and crabbing and all kinds of economies based on the water. Here in Chesterfield, even though it's only two hours away, it feels like worlds away. There's a corporatization here that homogenizes us," explains Kate Luxton, brand director at Familiar Creatures.

The resulting campaign, called The Chesapeake Way, centered on the quirky and folksy nuances of the bank's core small-town locations — their dry wit and love of fishing. Chesapeake Bank employees fronted the ads, which were placed in local newspapers and billboards around town. An activation with local minor league baseball team the Richmond Flying Squirrels involved dishing out the "world's largest crab cake" in its 300-pound glory during a game.

Luxton describes it as the kind of work that "maybe doesn't scratch the itch of a Cannes Lion judge, but it really gets the local TV stations humming." The agency said the work has seen more conversions in the bank's legacy markets — the bay area where it was founded, and where its campaign reflects — than in the larger cities such as Richmond and Chesterfield where it is expanding. It attributes Chesapeake Bank's 12.9% earnings increase in 2024 to its brand investment.

 

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Read the full article on Campaign US.