East Boston Savings Bank opened a new branch office at 960 Morrissey Blvd last Monday, Oct. 5. It is the 28th location for the rapidly-growing bank franchise.

In ribbon-cutting ceremonies, bank chairman and CEO Richard Gavegnano said: “We look forward to building and expanding our existing relationships and introducing our community banking culture to others in the Dorchester area.”

In an interview, Gavegnano said the bank has grown rapidly since it acquired the South Boston-based Mt. Washington Bank in 2009.
 
“We’re going to have 30 offices by the end of the year; this one on Morrissey Blvd, Beacon Street in Brookline and Kneeland Street in Chinatown brings us to 30. Since the acquisition we have grown tremendously from 22 branches then,” he said.

The bank, which completed a conversion from a mutual bank charter to a fully publicly-held company in 2014, now has $3.4 billion in assets. The brand’s increased visibility features an aggressive marketing strategy, highlighted by an advertising campaign that seems to reflect Gavegnano’s personality and marketing sensibilities.

“I’m not a banker, I am an entrepreneur by spirit, so it’s all retail,” Gavegnano said. “Meaning you want the customer to come in and experience your product or your services. And that’s what we’re about, and I hope that we make a little bit of a difference when people see our commercials, that it’s more attractive for a customer.”

The bank’s ubiquitous ad messages depict construction workers and a repetitive “work, work, work” chant.

“We just won a golden award for our ads. We wanted to come up with a tag line that was accurate to what the bank represents,” said Gavegnano. “We represent working hard for the customer, and everything seemed to flow into that one theme that can be applied to real estate, to your investments, it can be applied to you earning your money and wanting a safe place for it.


“The kids seem to like it,” he said of the ad. “A lot of parents tell me that when it comes on the radio their kids sing it. The branding I think it’s been accepted. When I look at other banks ads, quite frankly they’re stale and too boring. We have a very good theme we have a great background, video action of construction going on, and that’s what we’re doing, constructing houses, and big buildings to create jobs.”

East Boston Savings Bank operates two other branches in Dorchester: One is located on Talbot Avenue near Codman Square. A second is located on Gallivan Boulevard near Adams Village.