ABOUT FACE BANK'S AD CAMPAIGN ESCHEWS SUPERMODELS FOR THE 'AVERAGE-LOOKING'.

Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer

Elvis Schmiedekamp got all shook up when he learned that his face was the new hook for California Federal Bank's advertising campaign.

``I was truly apprehensive,'' he said. ``I'm just a customer service guy.''

But that was almost a year ago.

Today, the bank that laid its foundation in Glendale has Schmiedekamp's face on nearly 600 buses and billboards across the state. The bank continues to grow along with the campaign despite economic woes. Their elixir: Customer service is king.

Three years ago, Texas-bred Schmiedekamp was hired at Cal Fed to head the customer service department. He was steeped in experience after working in Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s customer service department for 25 years. He had a passion for his job and an insatiable work ethic.

``My wife always said it's not what you do, it's who you are, and I just want to make customers happy,'' he said.

So far, Schmiedekamp's employers are happy, as the bank continues to have a steady increase in revenues and an asset base that continues to augment. The bank is a subsidiary of its publicly traded parent Golden State Bancorp, a San Francisco-based group which purchased Glendale Federal in 1998.

In the third quarter, Golden State posted earnings of $103.3 million, or 72 cents a share, compared with $88.5 million in same period a year ago.

Carl Webb, president and chief operating officer, attributed the bank's performance to their retail results. In the quarter, Golden State's total non-single residential loans reached $10 billion, up 15 percent from the same period a year ago. ``They're very, very strong, and they've hit their sweet spot because they have a lot of loans that reprice on a monthly basis,'' said Paul Miller, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey in Arlington, Va. ``They're one of the best financial institutions you can get on a credit basis.''

Robert Trujillo, Cal Fed's executive vice president of retail distribution for the San Fernando Valley, said he couldn't directly relate the bank's performance to Schmiedekamp's presence, although he suspects it has helped quite a bit.

``And I don't see the company backing off the advertising campaign for the next year,'' he said.

That translates to more face time for the 51-year-old Schmiedekamp, who spends his spare time souping up vintage Ford Broncos. Schmiedekamp said he doesn't mind the exposure, although it's a little daunting when he's riding around town with his grandchildren.

``When the campaign first came out I was sending my kids and grandchildren copies of all the billboards,'' he said. ``Now, when they come to visit and we're driving around in the car, my grandchildren point at the billboards and say, 'Hey, there's Peapaw.'''

The Schmiedekamp campaign is the brainchild of Suissa Miller, an advertising agency in Brentwood. David Suissa, chairman and executive creative director of the firm, said he wanted to capture the humanity most banks fail to exude in their campaigns.

``Instead of talking down to people, we wanted to be at their level. We didn't want to portray an artificial client,'' Suissa said. ``Most banks scream we're bank; we wanted to scream we're a human.''

Suissa and his colleagues jotted down several ideas that would desterilize the image of a bank. Among the concepts was tapping Cal Fed's customer service department, highlighting the importance of their jobs. Suissa then began sifting through a list of names in the department when his eyes spotted Elvis Schmiedekamp.

``I thought, this is a real person, and then it was like some divine force was giving us a helping hand - this was our man,'' Suissa said. ``We thought the bank was going to call security once they heard our idea.''

As the campaign continues to penetrate various media, Barbara Gross, an assistant marketing professor at California State University, Northridge, said the face of advertising has changed in recent years and the Schmiedekamp campaign emulates this evolution. Whether a firm is marketing their products on the Internet, radio or TV, companies need to employ savvy techniques to get past the fodder of other campaigns.

``It's a matter of trust,'' she said. ``Instead of a bunch of supermodels in an ad, you're seeing average-looking people that consumers can relate to.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) California Federal Bank customer service vice president Elvis Schmiedekamp is the star of his employer's year-old marketing campaign.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) California Federal Bank, based in Glendale, has put customer service Vice President Elvis Schmiedekamp's face on nearly 600 buses and billboards across the state.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer