The investment had already been made — advertising in major college athletics isn’t cheap — and yet the man ultimately responsible for the bill remained unsure the decision was prudent.
Then somewhere in an exhibit hall in New Orleans, a banker from elsewhere in Indiana approached Mark Schroeder with a message: I was watching an Indiana University men’s basketball game and I saw the German American name everywhere.
Affirmation provides a reason to exhale. Maybe celebrate, too.
That moment proved to Schroeder, the Jasper native who’s the CEO of Jasper-based German American and its line of banking, insurance and investment centers, that his company’s growth had taken another leap. Par for the course lately for German American, which was founded in 1910 and within the last decade has blossomed into a regional institution.
The footprint stretches as far south as the Ohio River, from Evansville and Tell City all the way east to Clark and Floyd counties and Madison. Westward, the brand hits Vincennes, Petersburg and Princeton. Go north and find German American in Bedford, Columbus and Bloomington.
With growth comes visibility — or maybe vice versa. Hence, the affiliation with IU.
“When that banker came to me and told me that, it was amazing,” said Schroeder, who’s been the German American CEO since 1999 and began working for the bank 45 years ago. “We didn’t initially (invest with IU athletics) because you’re paying for a wide reach of people and not that many of them are within your area. But as we entered into the (Interstate 65) corridor toward Louisville, there was a better chance that folks at Assembly Hall and people seeing our logo on that ribbon board are banking or live in a place where they can bank with us.”
German American’s name and logo are among the rotation of sponsors on the court-level signage that spans the floor between the team benches during Hoosier basketball home games. At IU baseball games at Bart Kaufman Field, there are corporate outings again with the German American logo prominent. Last week during an IU coaches tour at Huber Winery north of Louisville, German American was the flagship sponsor for an event that lured more than 900 Hoosiers fans; as men’s basketball coach Archie Miller and football coach Tom Allen spoke to the media, they did so in front of a curtain stamped with the German American logo.
Schroeder credits German American marketing leader Jane Balsmeyer with pitching the idea to link with IU — and for pestering him after he initially declined.
“It’s not cheap but it’s not as expensive as you might think,” Schroeder said. “Jane had that idea for probably three or four years until they got me to agree. Initially, I said it was too expensive.”
There was some less-serious risk, too. Schroeder notes that German American deals considerably with agricultural lending and with anything ag-related in Indiana comes the natural association with Purdue University. So when German American is waist-deep into Hoosier athletics, those Boilermaker alums and fans “get their digs in,” Schroeder joked.
Purdue is just simply too far north for German American’s marketing, at least for now, though IU isn’t the only place German American advertises. The company also has prime signage at the Ford Center in Evansville, for instance, but IU delivers the outlet that provides the widest reach for a firm that last week announced it would open a new banking center in downtown Evansville. Add it to the list.
Ten years ago came the expansion into Bloomington. Evansville came in 2010. German American acquired River Valley in 2016, knifing its way into Madison and Seymour as well as the Louisville-area cluster of population on the Indiana side of the Ohio River.
One of the tricks to success, Schroeder says, is to hire local. Each of the management teams in the various markets is led by folks who have spent part or most (if not all) of their careers in that market.
Along those lines, Schroeder assures that as the bank grows, roots will not be forgotten.
The Jasper region, which consists of Dubois, Spencer and Perry counties, comprises 25 percent of German American’s $2.3 billion deposit base and about 15 percent of the $2 billion in loans. Coming within the next year is a new operations center on Jasper’s southwest side on 12th Avenue near the current Kimball Electronics headquarters; the building will not be central to customer contact but will house about 150 to 200 personnel as GAB maintains its downtown office as well as the south-side facility.
There’s a reputation in the region that Dubois County is an economic leader — we’re always among the top in the state when it comes to lowest unemployment rate, for instance — and Schroeder said the bank benefits from the area’s financial vibrance.
“We don’t lose sight of the fact that we were founded in Dubois County and Jasper and we are still based in Dubois County and Jasper,” Schroeder said. “We will always be based in Dubois County and Jasper.”