Frost Bank began in San Antonio after the Civil War and is today the largest home-grown bank in the state of Texas. ““We’re from here” is its Texas slogan.
 
     
All Business (Adweek)
Frost Bank Gets More Roots Over Rates
By Mindy Charski and P. Kelly Smith
Publication: Adweek
Date: Wednesday, October 1 2003
 
DALLAS McGarrah/Jessee continues to promote Frost Bank’s Texas roots rather than its financial products in the latest campaign for the client breaking Monday.
 
“People select a bank based on who they trust, not a temporary interest rate, and these television spots have worked quite well in building that trust,” said shop partner Mark McGarrah. The strategy of promoting roots over rates is one the independent Austin, Texas-based agency has followed since first winning the account in 1997.
 
The four new 30-second spots, which break in Texas markets, are the first to be produced in two years. Ads created over the past six years have been running in that interim.
 
“Texans First” consists of a variety of bankers offering opinions about the best way to barbecue. One says, “You would start your fire out with a little oak to get the temperature going.” Others say, “I like mesquite. Mesquite is a Texas tree” and “Sauce is something that definitely adds flavor to the meat.” The dialogue ends with a banker saying, “Now what kind of peppers are we talking about?”
 
The onscreen words, “We’re Texans first and bankers second” then appear. The spot ends with the bank’s logo and tagline, “We’re from here.”
   
Austin American-Statesman
Roots and branches in Texas
Largest national bank based in state reaches out to Texans with feel-good advertisements.
By T.A. Badger
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, December 31, 2005
 
SAN ANTONIO — The sepia-tinted images on the TV screen are classic Texas: men in cowboy hats and boots, the Lone Star flag, expanses of land that seem without end, Willie Nelson playing his guitar.
 
They look like come-hithers from the state’s tourism board, but at the end of each ad comes a gentle sales pitch — from a bank. 
(...)
Frost Bank started in 1867 as a dry-goods store on San Antonio’s main plaza.
 
Co-founder T.C. Frost, a one-time Texas Ranger and Confederate colonel, took his first step into banking by extending credit to struggling wool ranchers in the area.
 
The bank grew sturdy enough to survive the Great Depression, and in 1977 it merged with Houston-based Cullen Bankers and expanded into Dallas and Houston.
 
A decade later, when collapsing oil prices crashed the state’s commercial real estate market, all the state’s largest banks except Frost went bankrupt or were bought out.
 
The major national banks became a force after the state legalized interstate banking in the late 1980s.
 
So, to distinguish itself from its more muscular competitors, Frost played its Texas card.
 
It coined the slogan “We’re From Here” and mined the state’s mythology for its ad series. 
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark WE’RE FROM HERE
Goods and Services IC 036. US 100 101 102. G & S: Consumer, commercial and mortgage banking services. FIRST USE: 19970922. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19970922
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 75487555
Filing Date May 19, 1998
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition May 25, 1999
Registration Number 2270586
Registration Date August 17, 1999
Owner (REGISTRANT) Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. NATIONAL BANKING ASSOCIATION TEXAS One Hundred West Houston Street P.O. Box 1600 San Antonio TEXAS 78296
Attorney of Record JEFF A MCDANIEL
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR).
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE