Business runs in cycles and right now many of the large financial brand names are a bit tarnished. Over the next few years, we'll likely see community banks and credit unions turn up the volume on marketing campaigns emphasizing their low-key, low-risk community-based services.

We ran across this good example two weeks ago at $930-million (assets) Alpine Bank of Illinois. The bank uses a clever escape theme that should resonate with hard-core computer users and novices alike (see screenshot 1 below). The eye-catching banner sequence (see screenshot 1a) asks a serious of three questions, then culminates in an escape key (ESC) inviting users to click to a landing page with more info.  

Then on the landing page, the "Esc key" in the lower right (screenshot 2), takes users to an online Contact Me form (screenshot 3) that includes simple contact info to be used for a followup call or email (customer's choice). This is a nice high-touch alternative to regular online app, that can take 7 to 10 minutes to complete and are abandoned at alarmingly high rates (see note 1).  

Analysis: Overall, the campaign is clever and well presented (note 2). But the bank could make several landing-page changes (screenshot 2) to improve conversion rates: 

• Increase the visibility of the $25 account-opening bonus. It's currently buried in the first paragraph. I didn't even notice it until the third time we looked at the page (note 3).
• The account opening link on the landing page should be enhanced with one or more brightly colored Open Now button.
• While the "escape key" is clever, users may not realize that's how they are supposed to request more info. The bank should add a More Info button and/or add "more info" to the Esc key graphic.
• On the Contact Me form, their should be an Open Now button for users who decide they are ready to open immediately.

For more info on improving your online account opening results, see our latest Online Banking Report: Opening Accounts Online, published last week.

1. Homepage (16 June 2009)

1a. Homepage banner ads (they cycle through in this order)

2. Landing page (from homepage banner; link)

3. Contact Me form (link)

Notes:
1. For more info, see Online Banking Report: Opening Accounts Online, published last week.
2. One small nitpick on the design: The banner ads should only cycle one or two times per visit. There's no need to keep cycling the banner ads over and over, it's annoying for someone trying to find something on the homepage.
3. The $25 bonus does have a small banner on the homepage, lower right. But visitors attracted to the large escape banner could easily miss it.

Chase has great graphic design panache (see previous post here and here). As I was logging in to my account last week to see what the bank had done with a pesky $2 balance remaining from my payoff a month ago (see note 1), I was presented with an eye-catching offer to transfer a balance (see first screenshot below). 

The balance-transfer options weren't quite as enticing as they've been in the past:

• 0.99% for six months plus 3% balance-transfer fee
• 5.99% for a year plus 3% balance-transfer fee

This time last year, the 5.99% offer would have likely been for the life of the balance. However, under new regulations approved by Congress, where monthly payments must be allocated to the highest rates first, it no longer makes financial sense to offer a low rate for the life of the balance.

Note: Chase provided real-time chat support as I considered their balance-transfer offer (see second screenshot below).

Chase Bank's login interstitial (16 June 2009)

Chase offered online chat via a popup window

Notes:
1. Kudos to the bank for automatically eliminating the $2 in extra interest accrued between the day I paid my balance in full online (at the Chase site) and when the payment posted. When I logged in I was afraid I might see a $39 late fee on the $2 remnant balance. 

2. For more info on post-login marketing, see our recent Online Banking Report on Selling Behind the Login.

After viewing my credit card statement (personal and business) I was greeted with the following retirement planning pitch from Bank of America. I've recently seen similar banners on the bank's homepage (though not today).

It's not easy getting consumers interested in looking at their retirement situation when they are in the middle of an Internet session. There's always something more pressing or entertaining to be done than worry about some distant event. 

So it takes extra effort to entice clicks. BofA has a good approach. The "Stop Guessing About the Future" hook is a good way to grab attention. And the colorful slider-based tool is easy to use and, most importantly, takes only a few seconds to deliver some meaningful results.

1. Bank of America logoff screen (2:25 PM, June 16)

2. Landing page of promo (link)

The BofA tool uses a short bit of audio to get your attention and explain how to complete the short, five-step wizard. Users may turn off the audio using the button in the upper right. 

3. Step 1 of 5

4. Results page

• Calculates your "retirement number," the amount you need to have to bring your cash income during retirement to 85% of today's value (similar themes have been used by Wells Fargo (here) and ING (here))
• Shows range of possibilities based on a range of potential investment returns
• Has two handy boxes showing when you'll run out of cash and how much you need to add to your monthly savings to avoid that (also expressed in ranges)
• Action plan in the lower right leads to some suggested courses of action, that the bank can help with, such as rolling over a 401(k)

Note: For more information see our Online Banking Report on Selling Behind the Password, published in April.

Over the years, E*Trade has been consistently innovative in both product development and marketing, two areas that provide natural synergies. The company didn't disappoint with its latest missive to existing customers. 

An email arrived yesterday afternoon (Thurs., 11 June 2009) and immediately grabbed my attention with its clever and timely subject line:

Re-plan Your Retirement with E*TRADE and Get Up to $500

Analysis
One thing I've heard consistently from my friends, no matter how secure their jobs, is that they will "be working forever" now that the Great Recession has slammed their net worth with the double whammy of a bear market and home-price declines.

So this is a great time to get in front of customers with new efforts to help them re-plan retirement with new investment ideas, asset rebalancing and just a general reboot of their portfolio. And it's also an excellent time to discuss 401(k) rollovers, as E*Trade did in this message, with an "up to $500" (see note 1) incentive to roll over a retirement account to the company (see landing page, third screenshot below). As Americans change jobs by necessity, there will be millions of retirement accounts in play. 

Security features in email
E*Trade also demonstrates another best practice to improve trust in customer emails: personalization. The company includes customer name and last four digits of their account number to help distinguish the message from fraudulent phishing attempts. E*Trade draws attention to the feature with a Security Enhanced icon on the top-right (see first screenshot below).

Clicking on the Learn More link drops readers to the bottom of the email message where product URLs provide direct-navigation alternatives to paranoid readers (see second screenshot below). I hadn't seen that before, a nice touch.

E*Trade email promoting 401(k) rollovers (received 11 June, 3 PM Pacific)

Security "fine print" at bottom of above message

Landing page for email offer (link)

 
Note:
1. Detail on the rebate:

• $500 for rollovers of $250,000 or more
• $250 for $100,000 to $250,000
• $100 for $50,000 to $100,000
• $50 for $25,000 to $50,000

It's not often I see an unfamiliar name amongst the top bidders for "online banking" at Google. But today, the sixth advertiser on the right-hand column (number nine overall), was an ad supposedly from CenturyCU.org (see ad right and  search results page below).

The ad had a seemingly clear call to action, Visit Our Credit Union Today For Online Banking! However, when I clicked on the link, it lead to a .info page full of ads unrelated to the legitimate Century Credit Union (see second screenshot below).

While this doesn't appear to be a phishing attempt since it's not displayed on searches for "Century Credit Union" or "Centurycu.org," it is a bit disconcerting. It's clearly a violation of Google's terms of service and shouldn't have made it past Google's filters, but they are not perfect.

But my bigger question is: How does a spammy .info site make it to the top-10 advertisers on this popular banking term? Are there really so few serious bank or credit union bidders in the area? Or is it that the Google AdWords ROI just isn't there right now? 

Other than a regional Chase ad on the top <chase.com/washington>, it wasn't until the fifth page of results that another Northwest financial institution made an appearance, Coastal Community Bank advertising its BancVue/FirstROI-powered high-yield checking account (landing page here).  

Search results page for online banking (1 June 2009, 3:20 PM from Seattle/Comcast IP address)

Landing page for the fake CenturyCU.org Google ad (1 June 2009)

For many years PayPal has deposited users on its shopping portal when they log out of their PayPal account. This afternoon I saw something different at logout for the first time in recent memory, a pitch for the PayPal Plus MasterCard (screenshot below).

Although the company has marketed this card to me dozens of times immediately after logging in, it's the first time I remember seeing it after logging out. The hook is the card's new personalized photo option.

But a funny thing happened when I clicked on the Get Started button: I was dropped on to PayPal's homepage where an error message explained:

You must log in before you can access this page.

A very odd requirement for an offer made after logging out. I followed the instructions and logged in, but there was no mention of the credit card. I just ended up at the regular account management page.

I guess it was PayPal's turn for a programming glitch (see yesterday's post on Rudder). Luckily, this problem doesn't impact anything but PayPal's online marketing results (see note 1). When I logged out this time, I was shown the usual PayPal shopping portal (see third screenshot). 

PayPal pitched its PayPal Plus MasterCard at logout
(21 May 2009, 3:30 PM Pacific)

 Error message after clicking "Get Started" on offer page
(21 May 2009)

 PayPal logout offer a few minutes later (21 May 2009)

Note:
1. For more info, see our most recent Online Banking Report: Selling Behind the Password

I spent the past few weeks looking at cross-selling efforts from within the secure online banking zone. But unfortunately, I came across the following example too late to be included in our report (see note 1). 

When I logged in to pay my Chase consumer credit card online (note 2), I was greeted with the following interstitial page (aka "splash screen") inserted before the main account-management area (see first screenshot).

Chase is offering a $125 incentive to open a WaMu-branded free checking account (note 3). This offer may have something to do with the fact that I'm located in Seattle, the former headquarters of WaMu. The same creative was used in a statement insert and a banner ad across the main account-management page (see third screenshot).

Lessons:

1. Serving "more info": In this example, Chase handles the info-serving process a bit differently than others I'd looked at recently. When selecting More Info on the splash screen, the bank opened a new tab (in Firefox 3) for the landing page (see second screenshot below). And while the user read the offer details on that page, the original tab automatically loaded the original destination (account management page), and the interstitial ad disappeared.

On the one hand, it's convenient for the user to be able to look at the offer details and then quickly navigate back to the area they were originally logging in to. However, for more experienced users expecting a pop-up screen that can be quickly closed after reading, it can be momentarily confusing. There's a risk the user will inadvertently close the entire browser session by clicking the upper-right "x," necessitating an annoying restart and re-login.  

I'm not sure there's a single right answer, but another variable worth testing - something I'd prefer - is a popup running in a smaller window in front of the original Chase page.

2. Branch-only fulfillment: I was surprised to see the offer can be redeemed only in branch. There is no way to sign up online. The landing page is actually actually a coupon users are encouraged to print with the page-dominating blue "print" button (see second screenshot below).

I can understand the rationale for pushing people into branches where they can be upsold other services. But in this quick-start age, I'm surprised there isn't at least an option to apply online. Perhaps this is a test to see how a branch-only offer compares to online-only ones.

Chase Bank splash screen (interstitial) immediately after login
(30 April 2009, 1:40 PM Pacific)

Landing page/coupon (opens in second tab in Firefox 3)

My Accounts page

Notes:
1. The results are compiled in our latest Online Banking Report: Selling Behind the Password. 
2. Tiny rant: I owed $2.45 left over from some extra finance charge even though I paid my bill in full online last month. It's not so much that Chase didn't earn the $2, that's fine. What's irritating is that they made me pay it right away by setting my min payment to $2.45. Come on Chase, I've had this account since the 1990s, you can float me the $2 until the next time I have a charge.
3. Interestingly, I already have a small business checking account at WaMu. Either the bank's householding algorithm missed it, or Chase is making the offer to everyone in my Zip, or it still wants me to open a personal account to go with my biz one.

We just posted our latest Online Banking Report.
It will be mailed to subscribers tomorrow. It's also available online here. There's no charge for current subscribers; others may access it immediately
for US$395.

---------------------------------------------------------

Selling Behind the Password
Unlocking the marketing potential within
online banking

48 pages (published 21 April, 2009)

In this report (abstract), we go behind the login screen and report on the marketing and cross-selling practices of 15 financial institutions and card issuers.

Even among large banks, there's a huge disparity in the amount of cross-selling efforts within online banking. Wells Fargo is the most prolific, with nine marketing messages and product placements alone on its main account-management page. The bank also uses login and logoff activities to display promotions (see screenshot below). On the other hand, US Bank has just a single link to an "offers page" buried below the fold. Most FIs fall somewhere in between.

We looked at the opportunities within six different areas:

• Interstitial pages (splash screen) inserted after performing any online activity, especially after the initial login.
• Banner and keyword promotions within the secure online banking area
• Product placement within online banking and bill pay
• Transactional upgrades
• Page displayed after an online banking session has concluded (either through logout or inactivity)
• Product/shopping/discount portals and third-party ads

The following financial companies were analyzed by logging in to actual accounts and documenting their sales and marketing efforts:

• American Express business gold
• Bank of America online banking
• Chase credit card
• Citibank business card
• Citibank online banking
• Discover Card
• Everbank
• First Tech Credit Union
• ING Direct
• Jwaala (demo only)
• Mint
• Netflix (non-financial)
• PayPal
• Revolution Money
• US Bank
• WaMu
• Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo promotion displayed after logging out from online banking
(27 March 2009)

Given the financial benefits of driving paper out of the banking system, I was surprised to see little evidence of banks or credit unions using Earth Day to promote paper-saving options (eStatements, electronic bill pay, ebills) or fuel-saving approaches (online banking, remote deposit capture, bank by mail).

I looked at the 30 largest retail banks and the 10 largest credit unions and found just three green banking promos running on the homepage: Sovereign Bank (Santander), Zions Bank, and Citizens Bank (Royal Bank of Scotland).

And none of those were Earth Day specific. A Google search turned up a few credit unions sponsoring shredding days, which are nice, but not really doing much for the environment.

Sovereign Bank (Santander)
Santander's Sovereign Bank encourages users to go green by signing up for bill pay and ebills. A savings calculator on the landing page allows users to determine the environmental impact of converting bill pay activity from paper to electronic. In addition to the environmental benefits of eliminating paper, the bank promises to plant a tree for every ebill initiated.

The incentive program is conducted in partnership with the bank's bill payment provider Fiserv/CheckFree (press release).  Similar programs are also in place at BankAtlantic, Fifth Third Bank, PSCU Financial Services, SunTrust and USAA

Sovereign landing page (22 April 2009)

Zions Bank
Zions promotes eStatements in a small mid-page graphic. No monetary incentives are provided.

Citizens Bank
RBS's Citizens Bank is pushing its Green$ense checking rewards program that pays users $0.20 per electronic transaction for the next 12 months. Ultra-heavy users (3x per day), could bag up to $20/month in savings.  

Intuit's TurboTax unit has long pushed the envelope in promoting its brand through social networks. Its Vanilla Ice YouTube promotion two years ago (previous post) is still one of my favorite financial user-generated-content (UGC) promotions.

But UGC promotions take a lot of planning and support, and unless they go viral, they may generate just a few thousand views and little new business (see note 1).

Intuit's use of a real-time (note 2) Twitter feed in a banner ad (see at VentureBeat, screenshot below) is so much better than a YouTube promo in a number of ways:

• Much more cost effective: It costs Intuit virtually nothing to post its Twitter stream to VentureBeat (other than the advertising expense). Intuit is already broadcasting on its Twitter channel for other reasons. This is just a repositioning of that content.
• When Intuit answers a question within its stream (@ replies), it creates moderated "user-generated micro-content." The newness of the content creates more interest and attention than a static banner ad.
• The company jumps on the Twitter-bandwagon, a good way to generate press mentions.

Bottom line: This approach works only if you are creating an interesting stream of Tweets. TurboTax, during the early-April tax return mania, is a great example. Other financial companies can mimic the approach, and you'll probably want to run a contest or do something innovative to keep your Tweets lively. 

VentureBeat home page (9 April 2009)

Landing page at Intuit's TurboTax Twitter page @turbotax
(link, 9 April 2009)

Notes:
1. But if you have a huge budget, the payoff can be great. According to Jeffry Pilcher's Financial Brand post today, Barclaycard's Waterslide promo, referenced on the UK homepage, generated more than a million views on YouTube. Barclay's TV ad is here, the YouTube page is here and the Web-based game, here.

2. It's a "speeded-up" real-time feed. The banner ad cycles through the five most-recent Tweets (all of which were posted yesterday). Each one is on-screen for several seconds, making it look like there is much activity. 

UnCrunch America, the peer-to-peer lending educational/marketing campaign spearheaded by Lending Club (note 1) got a big boost with the addition of Virgin Money USA.

Not only does Virgin brings its considerable brand recognition, it legitimizes the effort as a true cooperative project, and adds a huge new category to the site, home loans. Plus, they get a much bigger number to put on the top of the homepage (below): $74 million instead of $1 million.

Other financial services participants include: Credit Karma (note 1), On Deck Capital and Geezeo. The campaign has its official launch today, although the website has been active since December (previous post).

The timing of the UnCrunch launch is perfect, following President Obama's assertion last night that lending was the "lifeblood" of the economy. All active lenders, especially credit unions, should consider joining this effort or using similar themes in their marketing.

UnCrunch home page (25 Feb 2009)

Virgin Money UnCrunch landing page (link, 25 Feb 2009)

 Notes:
1. Lending Club and Credit Karma will be participating in our upcoming Finovate Startup conference April 28 (see full lineup here).
2. For more info on the market, see our Online Banking Report on P2P Lending.

In my pre-Super Bowl post about E*Trade's "baby" franchise, I wasn't aware of several other ways the company is using social media to increase awareness:

• Baby's Twitter page (screenshot #1 below and note 1;): This is a new effort launched Jan. 22, the same day the 2009 outtakes clip was released into the wild via YouTube and press release. The baby Tweeted a few times on the days leading up to the game, and a few since, but the funniest part was the 26 game-day Tweets that actually incorporated real-time events into the script. There are only 650 followers today, but that's up 150 since Monday morning -- not a bad start for a low-cost marketing tool. 
• Baby's Facebook page (screenshot #2 below): Also launched around Jan. 22, the E*Trade baby Facebook page already has 3,825 fans. The commercials are posted along with a photo album. 

The E*Trade homepage has also been used before and after the game to take advantage of interest in the baby ads. The baby dominated E*Trade's homepage the day after the big game (see screenshot #3 below of the Monday morning homepage). 

Lessons for financial institutions
You don't have to be a Super Bowl advertiser to use social media to support your advertising campaigns. Banks and credit unions of any size can use these relatively low-cost tactics.

Here are the eight key support elements to consider for your next campaign:

   1. Press release
   2. Blog entries
   3. Facebook page
   4. Twitter stream
   5. YouTube page
   6. Homepage placement
   7. Landing page
   8. Google keyword buys (see screenshot #4 below)

1. E*Trade baby Twitter page (link, 3 Feb. 2009)

2. E*Trade Facebook page (link, 3 Feb. 2009)

3. E*Trade homepage the morning after Super Bowl XVIII (2 Feb. 2009)

4. E*Trade is running Google ads on searches for "etrade baby"
(3 Feb. 2009, 6PM Pacific)

Note:
1. Thanks Jeffry Pilcher for the Twitter tip.

2. See our Online Banking Report: Bank 2.0 for more ideas.

Even before the next installment of its popular talking baby runs later today during the Super Bowl, E*Trade has already scored.

Through advance publicity and select print ads highlighting the "baby URL" <etrade.com/baby> (note 1), the online broker/banker has already landed more than 2 million views of the outtakes for today's Super Bowl ad. And the clip was posted to YouTube just nine days ago (22 Jan. 2009). 

The E*Trade outtake clip (below) currently ranks 13th on the most-viewed videos of the month at YouTube, an extremely high level of popularity for a corporate-sponsored clip unrelated to music or film.

Demonstrating the power of making YouTube's most-viewed list, the E*Trade outtake clip is only 100,000 views shy of surpassing the Trading Baby clip from the 2008 Super Bowl, a video that's been online for a full year.

Here's the view count as of 9:30 AM Pacific today (Feb. 1):

2.2 million   Trading baby from the 2008 Super Bowl (posted 1 Feb. 2008)

2.1 million   2009 outtakes (posted 22 Jan. 2009)

1.6 million   Banking baby from the 2008 Super Bowl (posted 1 Feb. 2008)

270,000      Mobile  baby (posted 30 June 2008)

All clips are posted on the company's official YouTube page (see below).

E*Trade's YouTube channel (link, 1 Feb. 2009)

E*Trade "baby" landing page six hours before the 2009 Super Bowl
(link, 1 Feb. 2009)

Note:
1. The E*Trade baby teaser ad ran in the 31 Jan. 2009 Weekend Wall Street Journal. The quarter-page ad, one of only six ads in the entire paper, ran on page W6 (West Coast edition).

If you live in NYC, you may have seen one of the "other Mint's" Smart Cars zipping through the streets. If you are familiar with online personal finance, you're forgiven if you thought the car was an advertising vehicle for Mint.com. 

But no, this Mint is a car-sharing startup similar to Zipcar. It uses a Smart Car for its signature vehicle (inset), and also offers other options including a Mercedes and SUV. So far, the company operates only in Manhattan. Since Mint.com is obviously taken, the car-sharing company is using <drivemint.com>.

Mint.com, the online personal finance manager, should consider teaming up with car-sharing Mint. It would be great advertising for both if they can find a way to deal with the brand confusion. 

Better yet, a bank or credit union should team up with Mint or other car-sharing companies to use branches for car distribution/parking. Chicago's Bridgeview Bank (press release) offers a parking spot for the popular I-GO car-sharing service.

Bank customers could receive discounts and/or free memberships to the sharing services with costs billed automatically to the bank's credit or debit card. Another option: free car rental time could be used as a reward in lieu of frequent flyer miles.

Promoting fuel-efficient cars with shared ownership is an interesting marketing vehicle and a good way to position your brand as socially aware and green.

Car-sharing Mint homepage (27 Jan. 2009)

Like much of the Internet, many free iPhone apps have embedded advertising as their revenue model. The most popular tip calculator, and third-most-popular app in the finance category, CheckPlease, added advertising across the top of its calculator in its version 3.3 release (Nov. 12).

The current sponsor? Bank of America mobile banking, which has the second-most-popular finance app in the iPhone App Store. The advertising is handled by Mobclix, an advertising network focused on the iPhone and Android markets that debuted at TechCrunch50 in September. In a half-dozen visits, I've seen only the BofA ad. But the developer, Hardy Macia, says he's seen several movies advertised on the app. 

Clicking on the BofA ad (first screenshot) takes users to the BofA landing page (second screenshot on right) hosted within the App Store environment, i.e., the pages are not displayed within the normal Safari environment. The only navigation options are:

• Learn more (see 3rd screenshot)
• Download (see 4th screenshot)
• Visit bofa.mobi
• Close (the X in the lower-right) which takes you back to the CheckPlease app

CheckPlease is a product of Catamount Software which has developed mobile personal finance software since 1994, when it launched PocketMoney for the Apple Newton. PocketMoney is now available for the Palm and iPhone. The company just added an ad-free version of CheckPlease for $0.99.

The free CheckPlease iPhone app has been downloaded more than 200,000 times according to its developer and owner of Catamount Software, Hardy Macia.

      CheckPlease iPhone App                       BofA landing page

          Learn More page                                 Download page (note 1)

Note:
1. Surprisingly, the buttons on this page are not clickable. To download the BofA app, iPhone users must close this screen and open the App Store button on the home screen(s) of their iPhone.

I go online at a Tully's coffee shop every few weeks, but I don't recall ever being pitched something outside the usual Costa Rican blend when logging in to its free Internet connection.

But today, Charles Schwab owned the Tully's landing page, with three banners running across the page touting its High Yield Investor Checking among other things (see below). The two on the right have financial questions that, when clicked, take the user to an article on the Schwab.com site (see last screenshot).

The banner lower-left is more interesting. Little squares scroll across the banner in a very Web 2.0 way and, when clicked, additional info is delivered directly within the banner. Users stay on the Tully's page unless they click the Open an Account Today button.

The three scrolling graphics include:

• ATM fee graphic leads to an ATM calculator (see below)
• The High Yield Investor Checking graphic (not shown) leads to a description of that product
• The map leads to a short animated audio visual piece promoting ATM access and the High Yield account

Comment: This type of grassroots marketing can be done by financial institutions of all sizes. Just find a local coffee shop or cafe and see if they'd like a little cash to subsidize that bandwidth each month.

Schwab banner ads on Tully's landing page displayed after logging in to free WiFi at a coffee shop (Seattle, 3 PM, Friday, 5 Dec 2008)

Clicking on How much do ATM fees cost you? in the banner above opens the following tool in the window. >>>

Users can move to the slider to calculate the cost of a foreign ATM.

Schwab landing page after clicking on question in right-hand banners
(link, 5 Dec 2008)

Zions Bank joined the very short list of major financial institutions that bother to alter their homepage during major holidays. ING Direct usually posts timely messages on its otherwise spartan homepage, most recently on Halloween (see also last 4th of July, last Christmas).

It's a sign of the times. Instead of creating interest in auto loans by showing a sexy new convertible on a windy seaside road, Chase offers to help customers stay in their same vehicle with a lower monthly payment (see today's homepage below).

Interestingly, the $44 number in the headline is the actual average savings to Chase auto loan refinance customers in August (see note 1 for how Chase calculated the savings). That makes the whole ad much more believable than the usual what-if scenario.

Instead of burying that key fact in the fine print on the bottom of the landing page (second screenshot), Chase should make it the main headline of the landing page. The bank could go "social" with it by adding testimonials, a blog or forum, calculators (how about one for the iPhone?), a Facebook page, sweepstakes and even a scrolling activity ticker showing actual refinance savings as they happen, much like the Progressive auto insurance quotes (see note 2).

It's not going to help Detroit much, but it's smart marketing for the pre-holiday period. A $44 lower monthly payment translates into $500 in annual savings, enough to put a little something extra under the tree this year.

Chase Bank homepage (13 Nov 2008)

Landing page pop-up (13 Nov 2008)

Notes:

1. Derivation of the $44 savings:

Monthly savings figure is for illustration purposes only. $44.43 is the average monthly amount saved by customers who lowered their rate by refinancing their auto loans with Chase during the period from 7/25/08 to 8/21/08 on which we have the information to determine savings. These customers started with an average balance of $17,500, with an average remaining term of 49 months at an average Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 10.50% and refinanced on average for 53 months at an average new APR of 7.31%.

2. An activity ticker is one of our top-rated projects for next year as published last week in our Online Banking Report 2009 Planning Guide.

The best time to get your customer's attention is right after they log in to look at their account. That's why login-screen marketing should be in your mix (see previous coverage). But, your message is not necessarily welcome at that point, so it's a marketing option best used judiciously.

Wells Fargo makes good use of the technique this month with an open letter from CEO John Stumpf. It's been a while since I logged in to my Wells Fargo account, so I'm not sure it was posted. But it carries an October date, so it was probably later in the month after Wells Fargo prevailed in its bid to buy Wachovia.  

Many financial institutions have posted we-are-still-going-strong messages during the past few months. The Wells Fargo message isn't particularly noteworthy, other than they don't beat around the bush asking, then answering, the question:

What does (the Wachovia acquisition) mean to me as a Wells Fargo customer?

Wells Fargo splash screen displayed immediately after logging in (10 Nov 2008)

Overall, most major financial institutions do a good job with website design. But one thing usually lacking is timely tie-ins with events and holidays. Google is famous for doctoring its logo dozens of times each year to coincide with the national holidays and other big events. For example, for today's big presidential election, the logo has been changed into a voting booth.

Those efforts, while not always directly driving new business, keep the website fresh and show that the bank is paying attention to the events that impact users day to day. And the best ones can increase sales. By leveraging well-hyped events such as the Olympics or Super Bowl, financial institutions can gain valuable PR and attention from customers.

I looked at 3 or 4 dozen large U.S. bank and credit union sites today and found just one riding the election hysteria to make a point. Key Bank's Pick Your President promotion (here) has nothing to do with McCain vs. Obama but is actually a clever way to convince customers to switch to electronic statements. Customers get $1 (George Washington) for every account switched to estatements and $5 (Abe Lincoln) if they take bill pay with that. The bank is also throwing in a pair of $1,000 sweeps prizes to add a few Benjamins to the mix.

Nice job, Key; our vote is with you.

Key Bank homepage with small banner for the Pick Your President promo
(4 Nov 2008)

Key Bank Pick Your President landing page (4 Nov 2008)

I've written about ING Direct's holiday animations before. While they won't win any new business by themselves, they are part of a brand image that ING Direct cultivates. And it works because many consumers respond positively to a sense of humor even from institutions that are supposed to be serious.

With consumer confidence at an all-time low, and banks not exactly on anyone's holiday-card list, it's probably not a good time to create a whimsical branding campaign. But if you are ING Direct, which has built its image on bright-orange graphics and hip advertising, you can still have a little fun with the bank's favorite orange holiday, Halloween.

Visitors to the direct bank's homepage this week initially see white space where the bouncing orange ball normally does its thing. Within a few seconds an orange-eyed ghost comes out of the background (see first screenshot below). It comes towards you, then reveals the orange ball underneath the white "costume" (see second screenshot). Then it ends with the usual homepage (see third screenshot; note 1).

Very clever (I'd even say LOL, but I've vowed to never to use that term professionally).

ING Direct homepage (28 Oct. 2008)

Notes:
1. The animation runs just once. That's an important element of restraint to preserve the viewing experience. Don't endlessly cycle animations or you'll annoy your visitors. They can refresh themselves if they want to see it again. 

I noticed a new graphic on the ING Direct homepage today, "We, the Savers" in the upper-right corner. It leads to a banking version of the Clue Train Manifesto called The Declaration of Financial Independence operated by the bank at <wethesavers.com>.

At the microsite visitors can read the 10-point declaration and sign the manifesto online. The U.S. map includes orange balls in each state that when moused over reveal the number of signers. So far, more than 5,300 consumers have signed since it went live Oct. 10th. All signers can be viewed at the site, but you have the option of leaving only your last initial for privacy.

When you sign the declaration, a little orange ball bounces over to the map and updates the state count in real time. As a final touch, signers qualify for a free "I save" bumper sticker from the bank's online store.

The effort is well conceived and well executed, as we've come to expect from ING Direct.

Wethesavers.com microsite from ING Direct (28 Oct 2008)

"We, the Savers" link on ING Direct homepage (28 Oct 2008)

While making the rounds in the Finovate networking room last week, I saw an intriguing graphic on Yodlee's big-screen monitor (see inset). It turns out to be Qi (pronounced "key"), the robot mascot for Yodlee's latest aggregation client, Australia's ANZ Bank, which launched that day (press release). The new service is called MoneyManager (see screenshot below; note 1).

The cute little beast also appears in the bank's new iPhone promo on the ANZ website (here). The webpage features the app running in a full-size iPhone emulator. But that's not what you notice first. The bank uses a little programming trick to turn your curser into a GIANT robot hand (see screenshot below). It's a little disconcerting at first, but it does get your attention and proves you are dealing with a creative enterprise. I like it.

According to Rob Findley, blogging at The Bank Channel, MoneyManager can be used by any Australian and does NOT require an ANZ account relationship.

ANZ's iPhone webpage with giant robot hand curser (19 Oct 2008)

ANZ's MoneyManager webpage features a less intrusive view of Qi, the robot mascot (19 Oct. 2008)

Note:
1. For more info, see our Online Banking Report on Account Aggregation.

Eventually the distinction between mobile and online banking will disappear as the devices and services converge (see note 1). But until then, mobile banking, because it's perceived as cutting edge, is more interesting to many customers. That's why Bank of America, Chase, Citi and many others have featured mobile banking in on- and off-line media (see previous coverage here).

But it's not just a mega-bank game; any financial institution can play up its mobile capabilities. Texas-based IBC Bank, in the top-100 with $11 billion in assets and more than 200 branches, flaunts its mobile capabilities with a large banner on its homepage (see screenshot below). The mobile banner currently rotates with an identity-theft-protection pitch.

IBC Bank homepage featuring mobile banking (2 Oct 2008)

IBC Bank releases iPhone app
Last week, IBC became just the second U.S. Bank to release a native iPhone app in the Apple iTunes App Store. The mFoundry-powered application was the 36th most popular finance app yesterday, out of about 120. Following is a screenshot of the application's entry in the App Store. Bank of America, which launched its app on the first day of the App Store, is the other App Store participant (see previous coverage here).

mFoundry will demo its latest innovations at our Finovate Conference Oct. 14. Video of its previous demo is here.

Note:
1. For more info, see our Online Banking Report on Mobile Banking.

Identity Guard, the direct-to-consumer credit-monitoring brand from Intersections, has a new logo, homepage design, and a compelling new offer: six months of free credit monitoring (Good Start option) PLUS 30 days of access to your credit report and score (see previous look here).

And unlike most offers in this industry, this freebie is made with no obligation. Intersections does take billing info as part of the sign-up process, but unlike most others, they will not automatically begin charging a monthly fee at the end of the six-month free trial (see note 1). Last year, Intersections offered the six-month free trial (post here), but did not include the free credit report/score (see note 2). 

Identity Guard hompage (11 August 2008)

Separately, I ran across the company's banner ad today at Amazon's IMDB site (below). Here, the company is taking a more traditional approach, offering a 30-day free trial plus $3/mo discount on its flagship Total Protection service (regularly $17.99/mo). 

Identity Guard banner at IMDB (12 August 2008)

Landing page from the IMDB banner (12 Aug 2008)

Notes:
1. I tested the free offer last year and can confirm that they did NOT bill me for the service after it expired, nor did they pester me to become a paying customer at the end of the trial.

2. See our Online Banking Report on Credit Monitoring Services for more information.

After returning from some R&R in Iowa and Kansas, I logged into my banking and credit card accounts to see what I'd forgotten to attend to before leaving town. Luckily, everything seemed in order this time.

Always on the lookout for online marketing examples, I thought it would be  interesting to compare and contrast the marketing messages presented to users as they logged in and logged out of five major banking sites. 

• Bank of America (business and personal credit cards): BofA typically has a marketing message at login and logoff.
  Login  The bank's brokerage division is pitching free Morningstar mutual fund research. I haven't seen this one before, and it seems a bit wordy, so it may be the first time for this offer (see screenshot #1 below)
  Logout  A pitch for a cash-back business credit card. It's a good offer, but perplexing, given that I already have a business and personal card with BofA. Not sure why they want me to have three (screenshot #2).
• PayPal (verified account): PayPal has used log-in splash-screens almost since it began in 1999 with a mix of marketing and service messages. But they don't overuse the technique, so it's noticeable when they have a new splash-screen running.
  Login  No marketing, just direct entry to main screen
  Logout  No marketing, just a landing at the usual PayPal merchant emporium (screenshot #3)
• US Bank (multiple accounts): I don't think I've ever seen a marketing message from US Bank at login or logoff. I believe I've seen a service message at login a few times over the years, but it's extremely rare.
  Login  No marketing, just dropped on main account page as usual
  Logout  No marketing, just a brief "you've been logged out" message
• WaMu (business checking): I've had the account only a few months, but WaMu has frequently posted marketing messages at login, and they've been relatively creative, as you'd expect.
  Login  Pitching its WaMu Live concert promotion which provides exclusive access to summer events to WaMu credit and debit card holders (screenshot #4). 
  Logout  No marketing, just a solid recap of security precautions, a good message to leave with online banking users (screenshot #5).
• Wells Fargo (credit card): Wells uses marketing messages frequently at both login and logout.
  Login  Electronic statement (paper turnoff), something I've not done yet (screenshot #6).
  Logoff  Home equity loans (screenshot #7)

What's Innovative?
There wasn't anything particularly enlightening in these examples. The WaMu Live pitch was the only truly unique message. For the most part, they were typical, well-crafted marketing messages you'd expect from these major players. That's fine now, since most customers don't yet have "banner fatigue" at their online banking site. But going forward, the messages will need to be more targeted and more interesting to get attention and action from jaded online users.

The other issue is frequency. You'll figure this out through testing, but there's a line you don't want to cross where a splash-screen message presented at every login ceases to be effective and is just plain annoying.

Finally, for financial institutions, such as US Bank, still not using this login real estate for sales messages, your customers thank you; however, quick-loading, targeted messaging, used with discretion, should benefit your bottom line.   

1. Bank of America login screen for business-credit-card only account (1 Aug 2008)

2. Bank of America logoff screen (1 Aug 2008)

3. PayPal logout (1 Aug 2008)

4. WaMu login screen (31 July 2008) 

5. WaMu logout screen (1 August 2008)

6. Wells Fargo login splash screen (1 Aug 2008)

7. Wells Fargo logoff screen (1 Aug 2008)

Kiwibank has one of the most eye-catching homepage designs in the world.  Who can resist a lime green Smart Car with four monstrous speakers strapped to the roof?

As I was obsessing about iPhone apps this week (see note 1), I ran across Kiwibank's landing page for iPhone banking (see second screenshot below). Now that the iPhone has gone global, we'll see if more banks leverage the iPhone hype, something that didn't really happen in the United States so much. According to CNet Australia, ANZ is building an iPhone-specific interface, but a search of the ANZ website found nothing.

Kiwibank's homepage iPhone promo, one of three rotating in the lower right, leads to the not-so-exciting landing page. Still, when you are riding the hype, you don't necessarily have to put that much effort into your own work (see note 2), just grab ahold of Apple's coattails and hang on tight.

Kiwibank homepage featuring iPhone promo (11 July 2008)

Kiwi Bank iPhone banking landing page (11 July 2008)

Notes:
1. Yesterday, I promised it was my last iPhone post for a while, but I couldn't resist one more. Consider it a Saturday bonus post.

2. Case-in-point, the BofA non-app app being dissed by the vast majority of early-early-adopter reviewers at the Apple App Store (see yesterday's post).

With consumer confidence diving, the banking industry reeling, and even Starbucks closing 600 stores, what we need is a national holiday! Well, happy Fourth of July to U.S. readers, and happy Friday to everyone else.

What are the big banks doing to celebrate the holiday online? Not much it seems. We are 25 hours away from the birthday, and of the 30 largest banks, only ING Direct and WaMu (in the Seattle area at least) are showing the red, white and blue.

Anyone else know of a financial institution with an Independence Day theme on its homepage? Drop it in the comments. Enjoy!

ING Direct's homepage features a fireworks animation (2 July 2008)

WaMu trumpets its July 4 Seattle fireworks sponsorship (2 July 2008)

After seeing the little blurb buried deep in today's Wall Street Journal
(p. B-9), I checked out the press release, and then headed to Facebook to see Visa's new app aimed at small businesses. To gain that all-important viral effect, Visa is giving away $2 million in Facebook advertising credits, $100 to the first 20,000 businesses that join its new The Visa Business Network on Facebook (see note 1).

Visa's Facebook page advertising the network looks good (see screenshot below). It's very "corporate," but I prefer that over lame attempts to look hip. It's dominated by a large video at the top explaining the program, plus three more along the bottom explaining other aspects. 

Visa Business Network (promotional) page on Facebook (24 June 2008)

Selecting the Join this Network button takes you to a page where you are encouraged to add the Visa Business Network app to your Facebook profile. After adding the app, you must complete a short form to identify your business to the network and upload a picture if desired.

It only takes a few minutes, and your company is visible to anyone searching the Visa Business Network. It doesn't appear that Visa's network is searchable through the regular Facebook search. If and when that happens, the network would gain considerably more value.

Here's how my Visa Business Network page looked after uploading a graphic:

Summary
The application also features a Business Resource section with the usual collection of business tools (from Google), articles and videos plus an Ask the Expert section. 

While the idea of a general business network within a larger network seems a bit superfluous, Facebook isn't exactly known to be particularly accommodating to business needs. Maybe this will work. Certainly, if Visa attracts the 20,000 businesses it's earmarked advertising credits for, it will have a head start on others wanting to do the same thing.

However, we wonder how much effort the card giant will devote to the service. It doesn't seem to align that closely to its core card-processing business. But if its goal is to merely improve brand recognition with small business owners, it could be a valuable effort. Clearly Visa has the deep pockets to fund it for the long term. Who knows, maybe some lucky Business Network member will appear in a Visa Super Bowl ad some day. 

Note:
1. The $100 advertising credit was handled flawlessly. A few minutes after joining the network, I received an email to my main email account explaining how to redeem the credit.

In an interview in the Charlotte Business Journal (here), Wachovia's Savings Director Kathryn Black reveals that the bank has added 650,000 Way2Save accounts since its launch four months ago, and are "well ahead of our goal to have 1 million Way2Save customers by the end of (2008)." She also said they are looking at expanding the service: 

We consider (Way2Save) generation one. We're continuing to think through what's next -- how do we make this product better? How do we add on to this idea for other segments who have different needs?

   -- Kathryn Black, Wachovia's Savings Director, 30 May 2008

The Way2Save account offers up to 15% APY in the first year on a maximum average annual balance of $600, built up through automated savings of up to $100/mo. That works out to a maximum of $90 in interest the first year (not including the golf bonus detailed below), about $70 more before-tax than you can earn on other high-yield accounts. For more details, see our previous coverage here. For small savers, it provides above-average returns and helps them sock away cash without thinking about it.

Way2Save Golf Bonus
In addition to the maximum 15% first-year rate, Wachovia ran a promotion in May tied to this year's PGA tournament Wachovia Championship (see screenshot below). All Way2Save customers, new and existing, will earn a rate of interest in June, July and August pegged to the number of strokes under par scored by the tournament winner. With Anthony Kim beating the course record by 3 strokes, for a 16-under score, Wachovia is now paying 16% interest for the next 3 months. For the savers that started their $100/mo contributions in February, it will be another $15 in extra interest. For those just getting started in May, it's only $5 more before tax. It also means that the first year's blended rate -- (16% x 3 months) + (5% x 9 months) -- is just under 8% (see note 1).

Analysis
So it's no wonder Wachovia has attracted a slew of accounts. It's been live for about four months, so it's adding about 150,000 accounts per month. The most anyone could have amassed in the account so far is $400 plus a buck per electronic transaction. Assuming average balances of $200 per account, the product has attracted approximately $130 million so far.

Whether the new account pans out for the bank is yet to be seen. Assuming it pays out an average of $60 extra to each new Way2Save customer, Wachovia will have invested more than $60 million to attract a million low-balance savings accounts. And that doesn't include the marketing or customer-service expenses or the cost to open 15 new checking accounts for one person so they can open 15 Way2Save accounts (see previous post). It will be years before Wachovia knows if this product has a positive ROI. 

Granted, a bigger strategic issue is at play here: creating awareness of the Wachovia brand. It could be a huge success if the bank opens up hundreds of thousands of new customer relationships due to the promotion.

Note:
1. The 16% rate applies to accounts opened before May 30th.

It's an unusual time of year to see a free iPod offer (see previous coverage here, here and here). Usually, they appear closer to the fall "checking account season" when consumers start thinking about holiday gift giving. That way, even if they don't need an iPod themselves, they might still be motivated to get one to give to someone else. 

However, Bank of North Georgia, one of 36 bank brands owned by Synovus, has an offer running through June 20. Customers opening a new personal checking account, including free checking and sending three bill payments by the end of July, earn a free iPod Nano. The bank may be testing the pull of the freebie during the graduation gift season. We checked the other Synovus banks and none are offering free iPods, at least not prominently (note 1).

Bank of North Georgia is using a homepage graphic of the latest generation iPod Nano, complete with Flash video running on the Nano screen. The fine print (as shown on the offer landing page): 

The iPod ships before Oct. 1, just in time for the next holiday. Thanks to Bank Deals for the find.

Bank of North Georgia homepage (20 May 2008)

Note:

1. Tested from a Seattle IP address on 20 May 2008. We refreshed the homepage multiple times to see all offers presented in the main window. We did not search the entire websites of the 36 banks.

As a marketer you have to love WaMu. They are bold, quirky, and not afraid to poke fun at conventional wisdom. I haven't liked all their advertising campaigns, but that doesn't matter as long as the bank is reaching its target markets and delivering results.

While the bank has its challenges cleaning up the mortgage mess, its marketing department and ad agency are still producing good work. Case in point: WaMu's new Facebook page (below).

I realize that all banking pages in Facebook will appear lame to just about every 20-something that happens to stumble across them (see previous coverage here). But 20-somethings do still need checking accounts, debit/credit cards, vehicle loans, and so forth. So they will buy banking services. And what brand will they choose? The one that is at least making an effort to meet them on their turf with Facebook pages, text messaging, and humorous advertising, such as the talking banner campaign shown below.  

WaMu's Facebook page, which looks like it was posted April 17, contains videos, a crossword game, a branch finder, a checking account application form, a fan area and a communications app (note 1) that can be added to your Facebook profile. Take a look yourself here.

Excellent work: A

WaMu Facebook Page (23 April 2008) (note 2)

Notes:
1. Even though I added it to my profile, I'm not sure what the WaMu Facebook application does. It appears to be a way to communicate with friends on Facebook and has 49 daily users.

2. The bar across the middle of the page is unrelated to the WaMu page; it's the new Facebook chat feature, that appears along the bottom of all screens, and messes up my screenshot. It does show you where the "fold" exists on a 13.3 high resolution laptop screen.

Last week, ING Group's U.S. unit (note 1) made a splash with two major promotional efforts:

• Sponsored free access to the Wall St Journal online for an entire day (see screenshot below).
  
• Launched a TV advertising campaign, INGyournumber.com, aimed at the retirement market (press release here, view the spots here). Update 18 March: The company ran a full-page ad for the program in today's Wall Street Journal (p. A7)

INGyournumber <ingyournumber.com> is remarkably similar to Wells Fargo's Retire Secure Index that we looked at last week (here). The financial services giant created a special site with a Flash-based tool designed to help you find your "number." That is, the total amount you need to save to provide your desired level of retirement income.

Financial institutions should draft behind these well-funded efforts, and make sure your retirement tools are prominently positioned within your website.

ING Took Over The Wall Street Journal Online last Thursday (13 March)

INGyournumber.com Microsite

Note:

1. These promotional efforts from the main ING group, not ING Direct; although the direct banking arm did receive a small link on the bottom of the screen.

I don't know if Wells Fargo has saturated the entire Seattle market, or just the radio station I listen to, but I've heard its ad for a web-based retirement tool a dozen times in the past week or so.

I like the radio spot. It takes a complicated subject and creates interest by asking, "What is your RSI score?" Then, sending listeners to the Web to take the bank's Retire Secure Index test. It's interactive, it's timely and it makes good use of a multi-media approach. 

And Wells Fargo uses search engine marketing masterfully to ensure that interested prospects find their way to the bank's retirement landing page. The bank has purchased Google AdWords for various retirement terms (see first screenshot below) and created a unique landing page (second screenshot) and URL <wellsfargo.retiresecureindex.com> that has quickly moved to the top of the organic search results (see note 1).

Retirement tool
The tool itself is good. It's not easy to make a retirement savings worksheet compelling, but the bank does about as good a job as you can expect. After a 60-second intro by the friendly virtual spokeswomen (see second screenshot), the user completes a short form that takes about two minutes. The on-screen spokesperson talks you through it, but I tuned her out since it's relatively straightforward stuff (note 2). 

After a few seconds of calculation, and a clever drum roll, Wells delivers an RSI number (see third screenshot), which is the number of years you can maintain your desired income level after retiring. It's a good way to present the results, focusing on the positive. Users can go back and change the inputs or go into advanced mode to add home equity, business equity and/or part-time employment.

At the end, users are encouraged to contact the bank through a branch or toll-free telephone number to talk to an investment rep. There is also a link to open an IRA online. All in all, it's a good effort to engage users with a difficult topic.

Overall scores:

• Radio advertising: A+
• Search engine marketing: A
• Retirement tool: B+
  Provide an option to continue without the virtual spokesperson (see note 3)

1. Google results for "wells fargo retire secure" (10 March 2008, noon)

 2. Wells Fargo Retire Secure Index Landing page

3. Call to action

Notes:
1. For more information on search engine marketing for financial institutions, see our latest Online Banking Report (here). 

2. The audio can be turned off, but the spokesperson cannot be made to sit down or go away (see note 3).

3. The first option on the original landing page is to choose "dial-up" or "high speed" versions of the tool. The dial-up version does away with the audio/video track and just presents the static form.

If you are a subscriber to our Online Banking Report (see #150), you know how impressed we are with the work of BancVue and FirstROI. They are the team behind the 400+ rewards checking accounts we first discusssed here in early January (see note 1).

The reward-checking phenomena, largely created by these companies, landed as the sixth most important trend of 2007, according to our year-end report. The Wall Street Journal looked at several BancVue clients in an article last weekend (here).

If you are looking for ideas to spice up your Web-based marketing, take a close look at the FirstROI portfolio (note 2). They are doing some of the most creative work I've seen in 12 years of following the space, rivaling the UK banks, which have long set the bar for online bank marketing.

Case in point: Green Reward Checking from Bank of Hiawassee/Blairsville/Blue Ridge, all part of Georgia's $440 million Chatuge Bank Shares is well-explained in a clever Flash animation (see first screenshot below). Wisconsin's $770 million First Banking Center uses similar Flash techniques with a much more "serious" branding (see second screenshot below).

Green Reward Checking from Chatuge Bank Shares Inc. <www.frogreward.com>  
$440 million-asset bank headquartered in Hiawassee, Georgia

First Banking Center Rewards Checking
<firstbankingcenterrewards.com>
$760 million asset bank in southern Wisconsin

Notes:

1. (2) The credit union that first sparked our interest in the subject, Verity Credit Union, was advertising its reward product, Velocity Checking <velocitychecking.com>, on the radio this morning during Seattle's rush hour. The focus was on the 6% APY.
2. (1) First ROI will demo its latest innovations at our FINOVATE Startup conference April 29 in San Francisco.

Earlier this week, Ron Shevlin wrote about the "disingenuous" (see note 1) advertising from person-to-person lenders (here). He took issue with their claims of facilitating loans primarily for the social good, rather than for a profit motive. That criticism might be a little harsh, but he has a point.

Well if Ron doesn't like P2P ads, I wonder what he thinks of this one from Wachovia? The advertisement in question is for the bank's well-named, and well-intentioned new savings account, Way2Save.

I saw it advertised yesterday, above and adjacent to US Today's popular Super Bowl Ad Meter (here, screenshot below, note 2). According to BusinessWeek, the product is being supported with an eight-figure ad buy. 

Wachovia's ad promises an impressive return, a 5% APY plus a 5% bonus. On the face of it, that's a 10% yield. They'd have $100 billion in it tomorrow if it was that simple.

Here's the fine print:

• Must have a Wachovia checking account (but those are free)
• Limit of one Way2Save per checking account (but you can have more than one free checking account, see note 4)
• The only way to fund the savings account is through automated monthly debits from your Wachovia checking account (and those have to be set up in branch or over the phone)
• Maximum monthly transfer amount is $100, so the most you can add to the account in a year is $1200 (see note 4)
• The savings account has a variable rate and it not guaranteed to stay at 5% over the course of the year; and it is already scheduled to decline to 2% in years 2 and 3 (see detailed disclosures here)
• The bonus in year 2 and 3 falls to 2%
• A hard inquiry is posted to your credit bureau when opening a new checking account
• After the first year, the savings account has a $5/mo fee if there are no automated deposits

Analysis
For a small saver who can sock away $1200 over the course of a year, earning a 5% bonus, or $60, is an excellent deal, amounting to 15% return on the average annual balance of $600 ($30 interest @5% plus $60 bonus = 15%). While that's a fantastic APY, the $600 balance limit means the total extra earnings are only $5 per month, before tax, hardly a strong motivation for most savers.

The other part of the account that has created more confusion is the $1 transfer to savings with every debit card purchase, automated debit, and online bill pay. Some consumers, and even a few bloggers, have assumed Wachovia is paying a $1 bonus on each transaction. Now that would be a deal, if it were true. The $1 is simply a transfer from the user's checking account to his/her savings account. Wachovia will apply the 5% bonus to those $1 transfers, but that's only $0.05 per debit, or $1/month pre-tax for an active electronic banking user making 20 transactions per month. Again, not a strong motivator for most savers.

The semi-disingenuous advertising
Overall, we like the account. But we are not so thrilled with some of the advertising. Our main complaint: the landing page overplays the $300 maximum reward amount, which is virtually impossible to reach. Many visitors will initially believe that a $300 maximum payout means they can drop $6,000 in the account. However, that's not the case since it's limited to $100 month contributions, yielding a $60 bonus.  

Where does the other potential $240 come from? (This is the disingenuous part.) Answer: From the $1 funds transfers every time a Wachovia debit card is used. So the average visitor might think, "wow I'd have to make 240 debits to come up with the $240." Wrong again. The $1 is just a funds transfer from checking to savings (note 3). At the 5% bonus level, Wachovia only pays a nickel per transfer.

So how do you get a $240 annual bonus from that? You'd need 400 debit card transactions EVERY MONTH. That's not a typo, 400 transactions per month, or 4800 per year in order to earn the $300 shown in the headline of the Wachovia landing page. And that's in the first year. In the second year, with a 2% bonus, you'd need 1250 transactions per month to reach the $300 mark.

Final verdict
Ignoring the advertising, I say it's a deal for the customer. The product makes sense for beginning savers, a cross between Bank of America's Keep the Change (coverage here) and WaMu's Saving for Success (coverage here). I like the focus on automated savings, and the $1 per debit gimmick seems harmless, so long as it's better disclosed.

However, I'm not sure it's such a deal for the bank, at least not worth a $10-million ad campaign (note 5). Many Wachovia customers drawn in by the advertising will go away disappointed due to the fine print. In addition, thousands and thousands of zero-balance checking accounts will be opened to game the system, then closed at the end of the year, wasting bank resources and putting pressure on 2009 sales. 

Wachovia advertising on USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter (6 Feb 2008)

Wachovia landing page from USA Today ads

Notes:

1. I knew it wasn't a compliment, but I had to double check that one in the dictionary for the precise meaning: "lacking in candor or sincerity" or "pretending to be unaware."
2. I was disappointed to find that E*Trade's ads finished outside the top-10 (#13 and #14). 
3. Although it's not addressed in the Wachovia's FAQs, apparently the $1 automatic funds transfer will be canceled if there are insufficient funds, so it can't trigger a $30 NSF fee. 
4. The folks posting at FatWallet are sharing account details to game the system. According to several posters, the bank allows up to 5 accounts per person in the household, but only one Way2Save can be linked to a single checking account. One poster says he opened 15 checking accounts and 15 Way2Save accounts and will transfer $100 per month into all 15 accounts, resulting in an $18,000 year-end balance and a $900 bonus. Then he'll close all 15 accounts and move on to next year's hot rate. One poster said, the branch people seemed happy to set up five new checking accounts since they appeared to get a bonus for each one. To avoid the "FatWallet effect," make sure you always have account limits and sales incentive limits.
5. Granted, the $10+ million is more to promote the bank' image than for the product itself. And being associated with savings is good branding these days.

Even before the big game Sunday, E*Trade was showcasing its SuperBowl ads on YouTube. Six hours before kickoff this ad (inset) was displayed next to search results for "etrade," "banking" and other terms (note 1). The "trading baby" video had been watched just a few hundred times when I saw it yesterday; this morning, it has had more than 90,000 viewings.

The YouTube ad contains three links:

1. Clicking on the arrow launches the funny "baby trading" video embedded on that page
2. Clicking on the "Press to Watch" takes you to the E*Trade page on YouTube <youtube.com/etrade> where you can watch a series of commercials (screenshot below)
3. Clicking on "See all the E*Trade videos" takes you to this landing page at E*Trade's website (see screenshot below)

Later in the day on Sunday, E*Trade also added a link to the videos from its homepage (screenshot below).

The Commercials
E*Trade ran two ads within a few minutes of each other early in the second half. "Trading baby," shown above, uses an adult voiceover to discuss how easy it is to trade online. The second ad, "banking baby" (embedded below), showcases the company's high-yield savings account. This has to be the first, and probably last, time a savings account product received SuperBowl advertising exposure. It has 107,000 views in less than 24 hours.

Both ads ended on an upbeat note, saying that E*Trade was opening a thousand accounts per day, a great message against the backdrop of negative publicity the company received a few months ago with its subprime problems.

Screenshots:

E*Trade Ad Next to YouTube Search Results (3 Feb 2007)

E*Trade YouTube Landing Page <youtube.com/etrade>

E*Trade Advertising Landing Page <etrade.com>

E*Trade Homepage (4 Feb 2007)

E*Trade Google Ad (4 Feb 2007)

 Note:

1. Searches conducted from Seattle IP address: YouTube Sunday, Feb. 3, 9AM Pacific, Google Monday Feb. 4 at 10 AM 

For someone whose job it is to stay on top of innovations in financial services, I hate to admit I'm late to the party on the so-called "reward checking" phenomena. Last year, I'd noticed a number of smaller financial institutions launching high-yield checking accounts, but I hadn't realized it was a national trend primarily powered by a single bank tech supplier, Austin, Texas-based BancVue (see note 1).

According to a November BankRate article, more than 350 U.S. banks and credit unions now offer so-called "reward checking accounts" powered by BancVue with 30 new ones coming on board each month. These checking accounts usually pay high rates of interest, typically 6%, if users meet high levels of electronic banking activity each month.

Typical requirements to earn the high yield:

• 10 to 12 debit card transactions each month
• Electronic statements (no paper)
• Online banking usage

Typically, the following benefits are paid ONLY when the above requirements are met:

• 5% to 6% interest on the first $25,000 to $40,000 in balances
• ATM refunds up to $10 to $15/mo

And most seem to include:

• No monthly fees regardless of activity or balance levels, so the account can be marketed as "free"

Marketing
Another distinguishing characteristic of these accounts is the innovative marketing and website design. With the help of BancVue, smaller banks and credit unions are able to offer a level of design and pizzazz that meets or exceeds the typical megabank high-budget program.

Here are some of the more interesting BancVue-powered programs we've looked at (screenshots follow):

• Velocity Checking <velocitychecking.com> from Seattle's Verity Credit Union
  Earn 6.01% on balances up to $40,000 and receive ATM refunds up to $25 when meeting the following monthly requirements:
  - 12 debit transactions
  - 1 online banking login
  - electronic statement in lieu of paper
  
• Turbo Checking <turbochecking.com> from New Mexico's Charter Bank
  Earn 6.01% on balances up to $25,000 and ATM refunds when meeting the following monthly requirements:
  - 10 debit transactions
  - receipt of 1 direct payroll deposit or other automated ACH deposit
  - 1 login to online banking
  - electronic statement in lieu of paper

And our favorite, which substitutes iTunes downloads for the high-yield benefit:

• FreeTunes Checking <freetuneschecking.com> from Oregon Community Credit Union (see note 2)
  Earns 4 free iTunes downloads each month provided the following are met:
  - 12 debit transactions
  - 1 login to online banking
  - electronic statement in lieu of paper

Screenshots

Velocity Checking from Verity Credit Union

Turbo Checking from Charter Bank

FreeTunes Checking from Oregon Community Credit Union

Notes:

1. I began researching this area after reading Verity Credit Union CMO Shari Storm's recent blog post (here) about how she'd changed her payments behavior to make the 12 monthly debits required for its Velocity Checking.

2. Oregon Community Credit Union also offers a high-yield version, Remarkable Checking, that substitutes a 5.05% APY on all checking account balances instead of the free music. Monthly account requirements are the same. 

A full-page ad in the front section (page A8) in yesterday's Seattle Sunday Times/PI alerted me to WaMu's latest offering called Savings for Success (see note 1).  

It's not a new invention, essentially a 1-year CD funded with automatic monthly deposits instead of a one-time deposit (see note 3), but WaMu uses its marketing prowess to dress it up like a super-high-yield savings account with an attractive 5.5% yield. It also delivers the ultimate marketing coup: turning what is normally a negative, not being able to get your money out for a year, into an account FEATURE, saying that the savings is "out of sight and out of mind" for the one-year CD term.

According to the Bank Deals blog, the savings account has been made available in select markets as far back as July. At that time the rate was higher, 7% in Illinois and Texas and 6% in Washington and Georgia (note 1).

It's great marketing that plays right into the new year's resolution mindset this time of year. Surprisingly, the account is not mentioned on the bank's website, even though the call to action (below) includes the bank's Web address. Also, WaMu has not used search marketing to support the print ad. Google searches do not lead to the the bank and a site search at wamu.com leads nowhere. 

This is a great product and a good fit for online banking users. Assuming it pencils out in the four test markets, look for the account to debut nationwide in 2008.  
 

Notes:

1. Apparently, the same ad has also run in the Houston Chronicle, but with a 6.5% APY. In the disclosures on that ad (reprinted here), the offer was said to be available in Illinois, Georgia, and Texas. The Seattle Times/PI ad says the offer is only available in Washington.

2. Here's the text in the main paragraph of the ad above:

Your checking and savings needs are officially over. To complement our WaMu Free Checking account, we've created Savings for Success. It's simple. You choose the amount you'd like to save each month - by automatically transferring as little as $25 and up to $500 from your WaMu Free Checking account to your Savings for Success account. There it is kept out of sight and out of mind, earning big interest, and helping you save without even having to think about it. After one year, it's yours to access when we sweep the savings into any savings account you choose. So save like never before and still get free checks for life, free ATM cash withdrawals, and all of the other features of our WaMu Free Checking account. It's banking bliss. To learn more stop by a WaMu near you, call 1-866-808-1396 or visit wamu.com.

3. Update Jan 8: The product, with the 6.5% rate, has also been advertised in The Dallas Morning News (link to the ad here). Also, I neglected to mention that the account can ONLY be funded with automatic debits with a miniumum of $25 per month to a maximum of $500 per month, so it's not an account aimed at large depositers. 

Wachovia Bank is not exactly a household word in Seattle. According to the bank's website, the nearest retail branch is 627 miles away in Sacramento, California (see note 1). So I was surprised to hear an advertisement for Wachovia's mobile banking services in the middle of the afternoon on a relatively obscure alt-rock station in the heart of Seattle yesterday. 

Wondering whether I'd missed an acquisition or maybe the launch of a direct banking effort in the Seattle metro area, I Googled "wachovia seattle" and confirmed there were no retail branches (note 1, 2). I double checked through wachovia.com's office locator which informed me there were no offices within 30 miles.

As for direct banking, there were no bank ads displayed for "wachovia," "wachovia bank" or "wachovia direct" on either Google or Yahoo, so I'm pretty sure Wachovia is not targeting Seattle on the direct banking front.

But searching "wachovia mobile" did result in a targeted ad on Google which led to a mobile banking landing page at Wachovia (see below).

And surprisingly, AT&T Wireless was advertising under "wachovia seattle." Unfortunately, they dropped interested parties on its wireless homepage (see below), not the mobile banking page. Finding mobile banking on AT&T's site requires using the search box. It's buried under the not-so-obvious "Ringtones & More" category (note 3).

Summary
I still don't know why Wachovia is advertising in Seattle. I suspect it was an inadvertent placement within a larger radio buy. And/or the advertising was orchestrated by AT&T Wireless, which has a large Seattle metro presence, but no mobile banking partner in the area. Perhaps Wachovia was dropped into the regionalized ad by default. In any event, it's wasted air time. 

Note:
1. There are three Wachovia Securities brokerage offices, but those aren't even listed on the main Wachovia website. 

2. Search conducted at 2 PM Dec 20 from a Seattle IP address.

3. Note to AT&T: Time to update your FAQs and webpage, which still say that mobile banking is "coming soon" at Wachovia.

Ed Terpening, VP Social Media Marketing at Wells Fargo, invited me on a virtual tour of Stagecoach Island. SI is a  Second Life spinoff where users immerse themselves in a virtual world created by Wells Fargo (see previous coverage here).

Wells Fargo launched Stagecoach Island in 2006, originally within Second Life, and then spun it off on its own. It's a chance for Wells to give users a truly interactive experience with their brand and increase their relevance to Millenials, who may feel that banks don't understand them. 

They are doing some key things very well:

• Pioneering new ways to extend their brand using social media
• Reaching a youthful demographic most banks can't reach
• Harnessing new technologies to redefine marketing

Here are some screenshots from the tour:

We're all gathered at the Wells Fargo ATM near the entrace of Stagecoach Island, including fellow NetBanker blogger Ron Shevlin.

The ATM interface, where you can open an account, get a credit card or a mortgage.

The Stagecoach Island Career Center where interested job seekers can learn about virtual careers in SI.

A place to buy things for your SI avatar, using your virtual Wells Fargo credit card.

Yours truly on the slopes, ready to snowboard.

My Take

I believe that creating a virtual world that combines elements of fun and whimsy with financial education is a great way for a bank to start a conversation with tomorrow's bankers about the role of money and credit in their lives. Although Wells is currently doing many things well, I also noticed some opportunities for them to consider as SI evolves:

• The "fun" and "financial" elements didn't come together as much as I had hoped. It could be improved with an SI-wide games and challenges requiring users to acquire and spend money and use credit to solve puzzles and attain things they need to complete the game. 
• Currently, the ATM is very text heavy and somewhat non-intuitive. Wells is missing an opportunity to make the ATM into an amazing interactive experience. And, there could be ATMs throughout SI, which could be part of a larger game.
  
• It would be great to have real Wells Fargo job openings in the SI Career Center, like TD does in their Facebook group.
  

Also, where was the stagecoach? It had to be there somewhere, I probably just missed it.

In the end, Ed and his team deserve much credit for paving the way. There is great potential left in this idea, and it will be fascinating to see how it continues to evolve. Thanks for inviting me on the tour.

William Azaroff is the Interactive Marketing & Channel Manager at Vancity where he develops interactive marketing initiatives, and pioneered ChangeEverything.ca, the groundbreaking change-themed online community. William builds on a decade of experience at digital agencies in Vancouver, Seattle and Los Angeles driving strategy, extending brands to the Web and building relationships for companies in several verticals, including Honda, Disney, Intuit Canada and the Government of BC. He discusses trends and noteworthy achievements in social media at his blog: azaroff.com/blog.

Finally, we have someone using a blog to have a little fun (note 1). Carolina Postal Credit Union's blog, I Love My Hoopty, is using humor and user-generated content to drum up car loan business. Through its website and blog, the CU asks users to write about and post pictures of their first cars, and the more rickety the better. I wasn't familiar with the term, but apparently in this context "hoopty" means an old rickety car. 

The hoopty theme is also used on the CU's homepage to promote vehicle loans (see second screenshot below). 

Analysis
Since I'm twice the age of the target market here, it doesn't matter that the blog's content doesn't resonate with me. I LOVE the creativity and I'll bet the younger, Colbert-Report-watching crowd thinks it's pretty cool that a bank/credit union would do something this irreverent. 

Unfortunately, the follow-through doesn't look nearly as good as the creative. I first noticed this blog a few months ago, and until last week, it hadn't been updated since July. It doesn't really make sense to have a blog that's only updated a few times per year. If the CU doesn't have the resources to add something at least once per month, it should pull the blog down and incorporate the content into its main website.

Also, I question the prominence of the campaign on the CPCU homepage. Is that really the main message you want displayed to your members for several months? Even if does fit the overall brand strategy, the CU should change the banner ad's hyperlink. Currently, it goes to the hoopty blog (after a short detour to acknowledge that they are leaving the CU's website), which is not an effective landing page. The CU should first take users to a dedicated lending page that explains loan options and prices and invites members to apply.

Carolina Postal Credit Union blog (20 Nov 2007) 

CPCU homepage (20 Nov 2007) 

Note:

1. UMB used a similar approach in its My Ugly Room contest a year ago. 

Is it just me or is it hard to keep up with all the developments at Facebook? I guess if you are worth $15 billion, you have to keep hustling.

Much of the news out of Facebook has little to do with retail banking. So, you may have overlooked this week's announcement of its new ad platform and promotional tools for businesses and organizations (for a concise, 340-word summary and analysis, see Wednesday's TechCrunch post here).

In the official Facebook press release (here), Chase is listed as one of 12 "landmark partners" in the advertising program. Other than the existing Chase +1 group, with an impressive 40,000 members, it doesn't appear the bank has launched a page yet.

But that shouldn't stop you. To create a Facebook presence, you don't need to be a landmark partner, a mega bank, or even have ten bucks left in your budget. The new company pages are free and you can set one up here in a just a few minutes .

As a test, I built an Online Banking Report page in about 90 seconds (here, screenshot below). It took an hour to show up in Facebook search, so don't panic if it's not there right away (see note 1).

Even if you post only your logo and website address, I recommend doing so right away. That will help ensure that you, and not some crook or prankster, creates the page that's associated with your brand at Facebook. For extra credit, add Facebook to your periodic Web searches to see if anyone is wrongly using your brand name.

As an added payback for my 90 seconds of work, an hour after creating my page, Online Banking Report is the one and only page shown for "banking" searches (see note 2).  

You also have the option of creating pay-per-view or pay-per-click ads to drive traffic to your page. Currently, the advertising is very affordable with prices starting at $0.15 per thousand impressions or $0.01 per click. Ads can be targeted to Facebook demographics.

Notes:

1. When I thought I'd lost my Online Banking Report page, I created a second page for NetBanker here. 

2. There are many other search results for "banking," but Online Banking Report is currently the only one under the new "Pages" designation. Overall, Facebook search is currently pretty weak, but with the $240 mil from Microsoft, it should be state-of-the art by this time next year.  

As a financial services junkie, I've long been a fan of American Express (see note 1). During the past 20 years, as credit cards increasingly became a commodity with no annual fees, loss-leader teaser rates, and look-alike marketing, AmEx has done a superb job maintaining a premium image and pricing. I keep my Gold Card in my travel bag and use it once every year or so when I don't want to expose the numbers of my business MasterCard. But I would never cancel it, despite the $75 annual fee, or I'd lose my "member since 1989" status. That, my friends, is what brand loyalty is all about.

The latest product designed for small businesses, those with "6- or 7-figure revenues," is the Plum Card. I learned about it in a 2/3-page full-color burgundy ad in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (Oct. 31, p. A11). An identical ad appears today (Nov. 1, p. A10). Its standard teaser fare tells readers that the "application releases in 5 days" (today, 4). The bottom of the ad contains a special URL, <PlumCard.com> where prospective customers can get more info. The card was originally announced at an INC 5000 event Sep. 7 (see coverage here).

After seeing the print ads, I and another 100,000 people headed to Google to see what was going on. Wisely, the company purchased not only the top spot on Google for "plum card," but also supported the print buy with an additional twist, "Who's getting a Plum Card? Initial release of 10,000 cards." The novelty of a new financial services product with limited availability, a technique AmEx has used for years with Platinum/Black, should attract click-throughs.   

The landing page (here) continues the theme of anticipation and exclusivity, with get this, a WAIT LIST, to be one of the first 10,000 to receive the card. A countdown timer in the upper right lets me know exactly how much time I have to wait, in this case 3 days, 11 hours and 6 minutes. If I'm not mistaken, that's Sunday night at midnight Eastern time.  

I'm on the wait list, so I'll let you know what I learn on Monday when I receive my application.

Plum Card pricing
There's no argument the marketing is first class, but what about the card itself? Is there anything that AmEx or anyone can do to distinguish themselves in the crowded field of business charge cards?

Time will tell, but it has a unique cash flow and discount plan that could be very appealing to business customers. Users that pay their bill within 10 days receive the industry standard "net less 2%" discount (see note 1). Alternatively, users can pay just 10% of the total due and defer the balance for two months interest free. At that time, the balance is due in full. There is no information in the terms and conditions about an annual fee, but I'd expect one.    

Notes:

1. If my wife would have been willing to move to NYC, I'd have tried very hard to get a job there after completing my obligatory MBA. 
2. The 2% discount applies on spending of $5,000 or more; otherwise, the net-10 discount is 1%.

I don't know how I missed this one, but Advanta, a major credit card issuer with 1.2 million small business customers, launched a new Web 2.0 microsite on Sept. 24 at the high-tech DEMOfall conference (press release here). Just being there amongst the digerati was a coup for the card issuer, but they did much better, managing to come home with a coveted DemoGod Peoples Choice trophy at the conference.

The Web 2.0-laden site is called ideablob, and it's a place where entrepreneurs, inventors, and anyone else can post their business idea and compete for the monthly $10,000 prizes (contest rules here).

One month after launch, the site is generating a fair amount of activity. The eight October finalists showcased on the homepage (see below) have received the following: 

• 691 total votes (must be registered to vote, can vote on more than one idea)
• 216 total comments (must be registered to comment)
• 10,300 total views (anyone can view the idea)

Traffic to the site should grow rapidly once word of the $10k prize circulates. That's a large incentive for the millions of Internet users who think they have a better idea. 

Advanta, which uses fairly subdued branding on the site (see small "inspired by Advanta" under the main ideablob logo), is positioned to gain in three ways:

• By associating its brand with innovation, social networks, and a Web 2.0 attitude
• Assuming a good viral kick, and $10k/mo should do it, the site could generate leads more cost effectively than through other channels
• Publicity in blogs and traditional media

Bank of America launched a good business networking site recently, but without the fun of the $10,000 in prize money (see previous coverage here).

Advanta's ideablob main page (25 Oct 2007)

An idea page

Tomorrow, Wells Fargo is expected to launch a user-generated video contest that will place the winning entry into a 30-sec commercial that plays during January's Rose Bowl, with an audience of 35 million or more. The winner will be chosen by public voting on the contest website. Entries are due by Nov. 26.

Although, this type of contest has been done before including last year's Super Bowl (see previous coverage of Intuit's TaxRap here and Lending Club here), it's the first time a major U.S. bank has launched such a high-profile effort. It should provide Wells with excellent publicity while supporting its social media and branding efforts.

The whole effort is first class, from the Center Stage website, to the pre-taped audio tracks in various genres, and the contest rules and prizes. And while the sample video's are cute, don't listen to them at bedtime. Trust me, you don't want "The Wells Fargo Wagon" running through your head as you try to get to sleep. 

I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to the free iPod promotions. Maybe it's because Citibank never sent me my free one in 2004. Granted, I didn't jump through all the post-signup hoops, but I'm still sore about it. 

Today, Bank Deals blogged about the latest bank to offer the coveted music player, Plano, Texas-based ViewPoint Bank. This summer (here), I critisized Key Bank and TD Bank for using boring graphics to publicize the sleek device. ViewPoint perhaps does a bit better depending on your tastes (see screenshot below). You certainly can't miss the promotion, but the bank is still missing an opportunity to showcase the sexy new video nano, rather than the oh-so-2006 version shown in its homepage ad.

The fine print: Like most banks, ViewPoint requires direct deposit to score the music player. And, it must be at least $600/mo, so students take your business elsewhere. But the checking account is free, so the qualifying bar is not set too high. The offer runs through year-end.

One more caveat: If you splash a $150 freebie across the homepage, you better have an answer when your current direct-deposit customers come in for their free iPods as thanks for their ____ years of loyal support. One helpful technique, use cookies so that you don't even show the offer to existing customers.   

ViewPoint homepage (20 Sep 2007)

One of the best things about mobile banking is the cool graphics you can post on your website of people logging in while standing in front of dramatic objects. For example, Chase print ads have featured an appealing picture of someone reading an account alert from Chase in the stands of a baseball game (see post here).

We've also started seeing visuals on the websites of early adopter mobile banks and credit unions. And no one has taken it further than Eisenhower Bank, a division of Austin, Tex.-based Broadway Bank that caters to members of the military.

Currently, Eisenhower's home page is dominated by a rotating group of pictures with a leather-encased Treo with the Eisenhower Bank page superimposed over impressive backdrops, many with a military theme. See the series below.

Eisenhower's mobile banking is powered by Mobilearth, a Vancouver, Canada-based mobile provider. Thanks to guest blogger Brandon McGee for the tip.

Today, I was home for lunch and my son was watching a recorded episode of Myth Busters, a great show as anyone with a pre-teen child knows. As he was fast-forwarding through the commercials, I happened to see a glimpse of a LifeLock spot (see inset).

My son knows I like the commercials better than the shows, so he graciously replayed the entire thing for me. It seemed to go on forever, he said, "like a sponsored program of its own." Which from him is actually a compliment, I think. I checked out the replay online and saw that it was a 2-minute spot (note 1).

It features street scenes of New York (I think). It plays like news coverage as the big "billboard trucks" drive through town plastered with CEO Todd Davis's social security number in red, 3-foot high numbers. Interspersed are man-on-the-street soundbites from astonished pedestrians and a great testimonial from a LifeLock customer who credit the company from saving him from having someone buy an $83,000 RV in his name. It also has Mr. Davis pitching the product through a bullhorn on a crowded Manhattan street.  

It's a real in-your-face commercial, but I really liked it. It does a great job of grabbing attention, reinforcing the benefits, and providing a can't-miss call-to-action. It's a good compliment to the over-the-top print ads featuring the CEO's social-security-number (see previous coverage here and note 2).

LifeLock uses two different URLs in the commercial, the normal <lifelock.com> and <lifelocktv.com>. Both point to the same page now, but the company must be considering a distinct landing page for the TV URL.

The video is available in the lower-left corner of the company's homepage (below). For more information on the market for credit report and identity theft services, see our most recent Online Banking Report here.

Note:

1. The commercial doesn't appear to be on YouTube yet, so I was unable to post the actual spot here.

2. A half-page version of LifeLock's social-security-number ad was in a recent WSJ.

Note: Read part 1 and part 2.

Many articles and blog posts will tell you that the cost to enter into the world of blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, social networking (Facebook or MySpace), social bookmarking (del.icio.us or ma.gnolia), or  Application Programming Interfaces (or APIs) mean that you can start a blog or social media project for your bank or credit union at a total cost of zero. Right?

Well, sort of.

One of the critical, but often unsung factors of success of a social media project is the resourcing. If you're going to invite the public to play, make sure you have someone who can help create the kind of community you want.

As we planned ChangeEverything.ca at Vancity we had many discussions about how to create a vibrant and postive community. We have all seen online bulletin boards, discussion forums and blogs degenerate into the kind of name-calling no one wants associated with their brand. This was one of our worst fears. Since then, we've learned a great deal about community building.

In my first part of this post, I mentioned nine success factors for a social media project. An important one is hiring someone who knows how to nurture and grow an online community. Here's why.

Whether or not hard dollars are spent launching a social media project, someone needs to manage the initiative and ensure that it achieves its goals. This is a very specific skill-set with the following requirements:

• Someone who can inspire visitors to come back, readers to register, and registered users to add good content.
  
• Someone who knows when to get involved in discussions and threads that are degenerating, going off topic, or just going nowhere.
  
• Someone who can elevate good material to the homepage so it will hook like-minded people, as well as delete remarks you don't want on the site.
  
• Someone with good taste.
  
• Someone who understands the business goals of the site and can act appropriately and decisively.

Recently I have seen a few interesting posts speaking to the issue of good online community moderation. One was on Jeremiah Owyang's excellent web-strategist.com: For the Community Managers. I also saw a very good piece on Seth Godin's blog: Jobs of the future, #1: Online Community Organizer. So it seems that more and more people are catching on that this free revolution has some resourcing costs built in if you want to achieve success.

Here are three examples of financial institutions that blog and how they manage their resourcing.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo has a total of four blogs, the most for any financial institution. According to their VP of Social Media, the amazing Ed Terpening:

Although we have an Experiential Marketing group dedicated to social media activities for Wells Fargo, all of our bloggers are team members who have other full time jobs. They add blogging - writing, posting, reading, replying - on top of those jobs, and our lead bloggers take a more active role than others. The culture of blogging is unique and we strive to connect with that culture through many different voices at Wells Fargo. Finding the person with the right passion + knowledge is our goal, whether they have a professional communications role or not (most do not).

Verity Credit Union



Verity was the first financial institutions to blog, beginning in late 2004. It recently received an excellent facelift and functional overhaul. It's a highly usable and readable blog. According to their CMO and VP Shari Storm, they staff their blog with volunteer employees from around the credit union. Employees who want to blog go through a quick 10-15 minute training on the dos and don'ts of blogging, and they are allowed to spend no more than an hour a month blogging so their managers won't get upset with the project. This is a nice way to save money on resources. Until their recent overhaul, their blog was even hosted for free at Blogger. Says Storm, "One of the unexpected successes of our blog is how much employees like writing for the forum. We’ve heard from employees that it provides extra job satisfaction and a sense of employee pride."

Vancity



One of the key success factors of ChangeEverything.ca was the investment in a full-time Online Community Moderator, Kate. Kate has been instrumental in nurturing the community, providing them with contests and activities, connecting the site to the press to get earned media exposure, moderating comments and understanding the needs and wants of the site's registered users. Not an easy job, and I always say that Kate is one of the key reasons why the site has grown and excelled in the way it has. She has an amazing balance of clearly knowing the purpose of the site, and also being open to where the community wants to go. She deserves amazing credit and her skillset will only make her more and more valuable. (NOTE: no poaching!)

So, by all means try out social media. There are many low-cost, even free, options. But realize  that for a site to achieve longevity and success as a communications vehicle, branding tool, community platform, or whatever you have planned, you may need to invest in social media management. This means either tapping good people internally to devote time to the project or hiring a community moderator to ensure your project develops to its full potential.

William Azaroff is the Interactive Marketing & Channel Manager at Vancity where he develops interactive marketing initiatives, and pioneered ChangeEverything.ca, the groundbreaking change-themed online community. William also plans strategy for the online channel, with a view to its potential to help Vancity, its members and the community. William brings nine years of experience in Vancouver, Seattle and Los Angeles producing web projects for such clients as Honda, Disney, Intuit Canada and Nike Jordan. He writes about the intersection of online branding, social media and the world of banking on his blog at azaroff.com/blog

Using a splash screen after logging in to online banking (see screenshot below), U.S. Bank is asking customers to move to electronic statements, specifically for credit card and loan accounts, although the online-only option is also available for checking accounts. I saw the message, dated Aug. 20, for the first time today. I've been a customer of U.S. Bank through the entire online era (note 1) and this is the first time I recall being asked at login to go paperless. Unlike PayPal, BofA, and others, U.S. Bank rarely uses the login splash screen technique. 

Let's look closer at the bank's pitch:

Title: Internet Banking Updates
NetBanker comments: OK...but would be more effective if it directly mentioned the purpose of the message

Opening line: U.S. Bank Internet Banking just keeps getting better! 
NB comment: That's a bad opening line. This is not a new feature. Some U.S. Bank customers have had electronic statements available for 13 years now. Everyone customer has had them for at least 9 or 10 years. The only new thing is that you stop receiving paper statement, hardly the "bank getting better." Most customers know this is a cost savings move for the bank.

Benefit statement (bullets): Online Statements Only help you: Deter fraud, Reduce clutter, Manage your account online....
NB comments: Beside the grammatically challenged opening, the bank did a good job getting the anti-fraud message into the first bullet. The second bullet, "reduce clutter," is OK, but the third is pretty weak. Why are you telling online banking customers they will benefit from "managing your account online?" And only 18 months of archives is hardly going to give customers a good feeling about doing away with their paper statement.

Call to action: The bank provides specific instructions on how to turn off the paper statement.
NB comments: The specific instructions are good, but a small graphic of where to click would be more powerful (see the example at right). Also, the choice to view the message later is a user-friendly option.

Overall graphic design: The splash screen is laid out like a letter.
NB comments: That's OK, but a graphic image or two would give it a more modern and professional image.

Overall grade: C
NB comments: The bank does a good job getting right to the point. But the overall look and feel along with some of the specific copy points lower the score. This would have been an A- in 1997, but a decade later, Internet users expect and deserve a more sophisticated message.  

Note:

1. Full disclosure: I was the lead product developer on U.S. Bank's online banking system launched in 1994.

While so many FIs are scratching their heads wondering what to do about Facebook, it turns out that TD Canada Trust, one of Canada's biggest banks and the ninth largest bank in North America, is doing all kinds of interesting initiatives there.

What makes their efforts so impressive is that they have clearly tried to figure out the value they add to the demographics of Facebook users. They have managed to strike a balance of being true to their brand, yet not seem like they're pandering to a youthful audience, and offering something of value to the Net Generation.

What first crossed my desk this week was SPLIT IT, an application they created that allows roommates who are on Facebook to manage how they split basic bills.

Welcome to the SPLIT IT by TD Canada Trust application – a no-hassle, budget-sharing tool that enables you to share bills with your roommates. SPLIT IT makes it easy to determine who owes what, view your balances, and keep on top of your payment dates.

The application launched within the past few days. When I first saw it on August 15 it had 44 users. It's grown to 66 a mere 24 hours later. It will be interesting to see where it goes during the  next few weeks. I'm also curious to see how it's promoted. Will TD send information to its youth customers, or will they rely solely on word of mouth?

After seeing SPLIT IT I was mightily impressed. It's not easy to find a way to add value for Facebook users. From SPLIT IT, I linked through to their Money Lounge, and I was floored. They have job postings, videos, offers, all sorts of ways to engage the Facebook audience. Scrolling down, I noticed that they have 1,480 members of their group. Even if many of the group's members are employees, it's still an impressive engagement metric.

So, well done TD Canada Trust! The first bank to build its own Facebook app.

William Azaroff is the interactive marketing & channel manager at Vancity where he develops interactive marketing initiatives, and pioneered ChangeEverything.ca, the groundbreaking change-themed online community. William also plans strategy for the online channel, with a view to its potential to help Vancity, its members and the community. William brings nine years of experience in Vancouver, Seattle and Los Angeles producing Web projects for such clients as Honda, Disney, Intuit Canada and Nike Jordan. He writes about the intersection of online branding, social media and the world of banking on his blog at azaroff.com/blog

Note: Part one of this series can be found here.

On blogs I visit discussing social media, one ongoing debate concerns metrics. Some claim that metrics for social media projects are not meaningful; some claim that new metrics must be developed to gauge social behaviour. Some even claim that metrics aren't needed.

I believe that it is essential to have meaningful key-performance indicators in place for a social media project, as you would for any other project. You must know what success will look like to know if the project is worth repeating or not. Some of these metrics are familiar Web metrics, some are more similar to offline advertising, some are similar to PR metrics, and some are indeed brand new and hard to measure.

For ChangeEverything.ca we measure a few things that are familiar to anyone who runs a website:

• Unique visitors
• Time on site
• Referring URLs
• Natural search results
• Number of registered users
• Number of active users (need to define for yourself)

We also measure "Web 2.0" stuff:

• Our Technorati authority ranking
• The number of RSS subscribers
• Conversions of visitors to contributors (people who make it through the registration or content-creation funnels)

Like offline media, we measure how many people in our geographic region are aware of the site, just like we track awareness of our television campaigns. We also measure how many can link it back to our brand.

Like our PR, we try to measure the earned media the site has garnered for us, which has been significant, with lots of positive coverage on TV, radio and newspapers. We also keep track of what bloggers say about us. We consider a blogger writing positively about ChangeEverything.ca to be an unsolicited third-party endorsement. Happily, almost all blog posts so far have been positive, as have our earned media. It's difficult to criticize this project since most press coverage is about how the site has helped the community in some way. And that leads us to the most interesting metric by far.

Where we need new metrics is on the issue of real-world impact. This was not a metric we had in place prior to launch—honestly, it never occurred to us. But it became necessary because of activities happening in the real world (remember that?) due to the influence of the site. The first time this became obvious was after a bad snowstorm Vancouver in November 2006. The site's amazing community moderator Kate created a post called Got Hats? and asked for people to donate warm clothing and blankets to the homeless. This initiative took off and over the next few days, we estimate that more than 4,000 pieces of clothing, blankets, pillows, and, yes, hats were donated to local shelters, all via communication and organization on the site. The change occurred while snow was still on the ground, while the need was still very real, and even a matter of life and death. It was the first clue that we were onto something truly important.

There are many positive traits the site lends to the Vancity brand. ChangeEverything.ca is more than a bunch of people discussing local issues they want to change. The site has created real impact in the communities Vancity serves. Since the Got Hats? episode, we have seen the impact of the tremendous exposure a woman on the site has received for blogging in depth about her valiant attempt to give up plastics in 2007, the successful implementation of a bike share experiment in Vancouver and now a contest where people can win $1,000 to give to an organization making change for the good (appropriately called ChangeSomething).

Traditional Web metrics can't measure the human terms of this impact, and that's the beauty of social media. It spills over into people's lives, because people are in the driver's seat. We need to expand our view of key performance indicators for social media so they reflect the project's success, which now includes the true impact of these projects on our communities.

I think that explains why those of us who advocate for the appropriate use of social media are so passionate about our work.

In many ways, hybrid vehicles are the perfect antidote for guilt about our 21st century high-consumption lifestyle. Buy a Prius, and instantly feel better coasting around the city on self-generated battery power. Yet you still get to motor about in a relatively large, well-appointed and air-conditioned steel box (note 1).  

That's why politicians have jumped on this bandwagon in droves. And why it makes a great marketing statement to support energy-saving and/or low-emission alternatives with loan discounts. Not only does it position you as caring about the larger environment, there is a very real environmental education benefit to the efforts.

The most recent example—Star One Credit Union <starone.org>, a $3 billion (assets), 71,000 member CU based in Sunnyvale, California—has a link on its homepage to its hybrid offer. Customers financing a new or used hybrid vehicle save 0.25% on their loan rate. On a $20,000 5-year loan, $139 is saved, enough to fill the tank three, maybe four times. The offer is spelled out here (screenshot below).  

Other financial institutions offering hybrid car loans:

• UCB Bank (Miami, FL): no payments for 3 months offer here
• Deedham Savings (Deedham, MA): offer here
• Sound Credit Union (Tacoma, WA): 0.50% discount offer here
• Tech CU (San Jose, CA): 0.25% discount offer here
• Vancity (Vancouver, BC, Canada): Prime rate for low-emission vehicles here
  

Note:

(1) I'm not trying to be cynical here. As a former engineer, I think hybrid technology is fantastic. Using waste energy to fuel the car is both elegant and efficient, and I look forward to driving one soon.

Many companies are entering the world of social media but don't really know what success looks like. They want to dabble with this new toolkit, but don't know how to manage expectations.

I believe these projects can be of tremendous value to our industry, which is based heavily on trust. Social media, when executed well, engenders great trust among the users and participants. Somewhere I came across the quote "trust is the killer app," and I like it a lot (I'd like to know who coined that phrase; if you know, please comment).

One year ago, the company I work for, Vancity, launched a social networking website called ChangeEverything.ca. This project is an open online community "for people in Vancouver, Victoria and the Lower Mainland who want to change themselves, their communities or their world." I must admit, one year ago we were fairly naive about what to expect. Now, just past our one-year anniversary, we consider the project a success due to several factors:

• The steady and impressive growth of the registered user base
• Site traffic peaking during times when relevant local issues are being discussed
• Tremendous media exposure in local print, radio and television
• Excellent response to the site from the blogging community (we consider good blog reviews to be unsolicited third-party endorsements)
• Real world impact (more on this in part 2 next week)

The site now acts as a community platform to explore issues of change in and around Vancity's market. It's a unique and wonderful position to be in, with this base of local changemakers associated with our brand.

Lessons from ChangeEverything 

Over the last year, we learned many lessons about what makes a good community project. They include:

1. The first 500 members set the tone
2. Create a set of Community Guidelines
3. Focus more on encouraging good content than eliminating content you're afraid of
4. Ensure you have good moderation capabilities
5. Have patience and persistence
6. Be genuine and authentic
7. Make it part of a campaign to trial
8. Identify your critical success metrics ahead of time
9. Hire an excellent community moderator

Let me explain each point:

1. Typically, in online communities the first 500 members set the tone and mood. If the first 500 people who register and use your forum are yelling, being rude and creating havoc, then those people you do want to participate won't feel welcome. The good news is, the opposite is also true. Handpick the first few users, ask them to pass along the URL to their peers. Start slow and feed the community well, with people who get what you're trying to achieve. By the time the masses get hold of it, the tone will be set and it'll be far easier to monitor and moderate. In fact, you may find that you don't have to moderate comments much at all, which is what we've found with ChangeEverything.ca.

2. Set proper expectations and then link to those guidelines from every place on the site where users can add their own content. It helps to write your guidelines in a very readable way - here are the guidelines for ChangeEverything.ca. Make them humourous and fun, which will make them easier to enforce.

3. Add features and functions that make people want to collaborate. It's too easy to get caught up in being a security guard and forget that you need to be a concierge first. The primary objective is to get people to contribute positively, not to stop people from contributing negatively. Admittedly, this is a hard one to follow through on.

4. Whatever software platform you use, make sure you can moderate content on and off the site easily. The amount of spam blogs get make this doubly essential.

5. Rome wasn't built in a day and communities don't flourish overnight. Keep finding interesting ways to let your initiative take root.

6. One of my absolute favorite quotes is "all social media projects are inherently authentic." The more I think about it, the truer it is. If companies play with social media for the right reason, they will have a greater chance of success.

7. If companies need a safe way to try out social media, they should make it part of a bigger campaign. The ROI (or sometimes lack thereof) is easier to justify to try something different and more innovative.

8. Metrics are crucial and part two of this post will explore the changing world of metrics for social media more fully.

9. Hire someone who knows how to nurture and grow an online community. I'll go into more depth on this topic in part three of this post.

Now for the kicker: In the year of running an online community, where registered users can immediately add comments, with no moderation before those comments go live, we have not had to remove a single comment due to inappropriate behavior. We're extremely proud of this fact, that we were able to build a thriving community focused on positive change. We have removed spam and gibberish, but no one has gone against our community guidelines and posted anything hateful or obscene. Gives me renewed faith in humanity.

Citibank continues to press its lead in mobile banking services. The banking giant not only runs print and television ads, but also claims valuable left-side real estate on Citi's homepage (see inset for closeup of section; see screenshot below for context; and see note 1).

Since Citi's homepage is relatively cluttered with banner ads, the New & Noteworthy section supported by a small mobile phone graphic should grab a significant number of clicks. The landing page is the same as reported earlier (see previous coverage here).

Note:

1. Citibank's homepage as viewed from a Seattle IP address, Aug 7, 3 PM Pacific, from a laptop that has previously visited Citibank.com but that has not accessed a Citi account.

Update July 30: I don't know if it was me or YouTube's search function (probably the former), but I missed at least six other entrants into the Lending Club contest. While I'm still surprised there are so few — as of 11 AM Pacific today, there are 10 total entrants here — that's MUCH better than three. What's more important: several are approriate and relatively clever. The current leader here, and probable winner, has nearly 5,000 views and will be hard to catch. Another thing I missed, the company DID put the contest in its blog here. I apologize for the errors.

Start-up, P2P lender Lending Club is sponsoring a user-generated video contest on YouTube. The most popular video wins $5,000, and in addition to its blog, the contest is also discussed in the lender's Facebook Group (screenshot below). Despite this exposure, the contest doesn't seem to be widely known. We read about it last week on a P2P lending blog called Prosper Lending Review.

Right now, it looks like someone's going to make off with an easy $5k. The contest, which began July 17, and ends on Aug. 10, has only two entrants posted on YouTube, at least using the correct tab "Lending Club." One is recorded so softly, you cannot understand a word of it, another features a guy reading website copy on his couch, and the last one is a dubbed-over 1-minute clip from the Hound of the Baskervilles. I don't want to skew the results by linking to them. Trust me, you don't need to watch them.

And since the winner is the video with the most cumulative plays on Aug. 10, new entrants have less than 2 weeks to rack up more than the 2,000 views of the current leader. 

A few lessons from this effort:

Lesson #1: While the contest is a great idea to generate low-cost buzz, and perfect for a Facebook-based app like Lending Club, the lesson here is that you need to run it longer so the contest can create its own viral momentum. Three and a half-weeks just isn't enough time for the word to get out to enough creative types and for them to get something interesting recorded, uploaded, and for it to catch on with YouTube viewers. In contrast, see our coverage of Intuit's TurboTax Rap which generated more than one million YouTube views (previous coverage here).

Lesson #2: Lending Club was apparently testing the power of FaceBook groups, creating a special one just for the contest called, "Lending Club Contest -- Win $5,000." The lender did not mention the contest (see update above) on its website. But unfortunately, the Facebook club has only 57 members after two weeks and doesn't appear to have the horsepower to spike enough word-of-mouth buzz on its own. I'm sure they will do it differently next time.

Lesson #3: You might want to include a clause in the contest rules stating that videos containing pirated content or profanity, are unintelligible or not understandable, are not allowed. That would eliminate all three current entrants. Here's the official rules posted at Facebook.

Along with 550,000 other followers of Web 2.0 happenings, I'm a regular reader of Michael Arrington's TechCrunch, although it's harder to keep up with these days as the blog has gone from a couple posts per day to seven or eight. Although I usually read it in an RSS reader, I visit the site once per week or so to read comments.

This week for the first time I noticed financial services advertiser Bank of America, a hardly newsworthy occurrence as Bank of America spent $43 million advertising online last year (here). But the content of the banner proved most interesting (screenshot below); here's what the bank's ad says:

A little knowledge is a powerful thing.
Online Banking Service: Check your balances and account activity so you can help prevent fees.

And the blue button on the right says "Know More Now."

The banner leads to a landing page (here) that discusses a number of topics, but opens to a discussion about overdraft-protection options in the middle of the page (screenshot below). It's very interesting to see a large bank take on this controversial issue in its advertising. It's a good sign that the banking industry is taking the criticisms seriously and is working to educate users on how to avoid fees, even if does impact short-term fee income (see my discussion of how mobile alerts can be used to keep users informed, here).

Just two days after announcing its browser-based (WAP) mobile banking service (press release here), it's already showing up in the bank's cross-marketing efforts. When I logged out of my Wells Fargo account this afternoon, I was greeted with this message:

Clicking on Sign Up Now takes you to this topnotch landing page (here). The Take a Tour button in the lower right triggers a short animated demo of the mobile service right on the landing page:

Features
The bank is using a new, shortened URL, <wf.com> for mobile access, a huge keystroke advantage over <wellsfargo.com>. Both <wf.com> and <mobile.wellsfargo.com> go directly to a mobile phone-optimized secure sign-in page (see inset). The mobile service offers:

• account balances for checking, savings, mortgage, home equity, brokerage, auto loan, student loan, and credit cards
• transaction history
• funds transfer between Wells Fargo accounts

Note:

1. An interesting side note to the announcement: The first result in a Google search for "wells fargo mobile" still leads to an August 2002 CNet story on Wells Fargo's decision to shutter its original mobile banking platform launched in 2001 (see inset).

This past weekend, NetBanker sponsored an event called BarCampBank in Seattle. It's an unusual name for an unusual event. The name derives from an international network of events, which Wikipedia defines as "open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants." It usually refers to "early-stage Web applications, and related open-source technologies and social protocols." In this case it was a loose, collaborative unconference about "innovation in banking, credit unions, social lending, or finance." It attracted close to 40 people—credit unions, banking experts, consultants and suppliers across the United States and Canada. It was unfortunate that there was no representation from actual banks.

The topics discussed included the use of social media, credit relief for third world countries, branching strategy, expectations of Gen Y and Millennials, mobile banking, and open-source core processors. Over the weekend, as discussions opened and progressed, the ideas were distilled down to a few themes.

• Banks and credit unions don't really know what it means to be customer-centric.
• The disintermediation that the industry has been seeing on the horizon for years seems to be occurring, and financial institutions had better get on board or lose market share.
• Are social media (blogs, social networks, wikis) an effective way to market and promote banks?
• What would a bank look like if one was built from scratch today?

There was a lot of talk that banks and credit unions only look after their own needs and don't pay enough attention to serving their customers effectively. There is a lack of bravery and responsiveness to their customers' needs. To most consumers, banking is a chore like going to the grocery store or the post office (and in the worst examples, the dentist). People want easy access to their money and sound financial advice; in many cases, that is not what they receive.

There were some very interesting and disruptive ideas. One big one that kept coming up was the banking equivalent of local number portability. You get an account number the first time you create a bank account, and you can move it from bank to bank to bank. An amazingly customer-centric idea. You neither have to change your bill-pay info, nor your direct deposit or pre-authorized payments. This is one of the main factors that keep people where they are, and would force the banks to differentiate based on service and product innovation. The pain of switching would be eliminated and people could change banks when they found a better option for them and not wait until they get so frustrated with their existing bank that they overcome their inertia.

Another theme that emerged, which will come as no surprise to NetBanker readers, is the brilliance of Wesabe.com's model. There is real passion in the way the founder and CEO Jason Knight describes the mission of his organization, which helps consumers make better decisions with their money. With a focus on showing consumers where their money can get them the most value, he doesn't see himself competing with banks at all, but offering a complimentary service. I wonder how many banks see the value Wesabe adds, and will work with it to give customers deeper insights into how they spend their money.

The people in the room were keenly aware of the echo-chamber effect created by being surrounded by those who feel similarly about social media. We were mostly proponents of the relevant use of social media to further the goals of a financial institution. But adoption of blogging, social networking tools and Web 2.0 technology by financial institutions is slow at best, and the number of successful implementations of these tools is few and far between. That honesty was refreshing.

There was an overwhelming feeling in the room that banking is ripe for a revolution. Interesting to come back from BarCampBank and see this insightful article on GonzoBanker about the demise of the banking industry as we know it. Many of these same themes were reflected in our dialogue. Money is too crucial in our lives to avoid big shifts ahead in the financial services sector. BarCampBank demonstrated that this is definitely an interesting time to be in banking.

From a customer's perspective, this is a hot offer. Open a Key Bank free checking account. Make two automated deposits of $100 or more and take home an Apple iPod nano worth $150. The only downside, the tax bill next April for the $150 in implied interest.

I can't vouch for the ROI of a giving a $150 premium for a free checking account, but Key Bank has run thousands of marketing campaigns, and I trust their spreadsheets say this will pencil out. And they are not the first to give it a try. Citibank aggressively handed out iPod Minis with new checking accounts several years ago. North of the border, TD Canada Trust is also using the must-have music player in its promotion running through 7 August, handing out an iPod shuffle for a new checking account, an iPod nano for new checking plus a credit card, or full 30 GB version for all of the above and $5,000 in savings (see landing page below).

I'm not crazy about the TD ad, but it's hard to miss with the huge FREE IPOD next to the in-your-face picture. However, Key seems to be missing the mark. The bank succeeds in taking one of the most-sought-after gadgets in the past 20 years and making in nearly invisible on the page, rendering the device in grayscale and using red text that blends into the other red accents of the homepage. Compare that to the graphic above from Apple's store. Why not show one of the brighter colors to grab attention? Or use an animation to show all the colors. Yes, I know the non-silver versions have twice the capacity (4 GB instead of 2 GB) and cost $50 extra at retail, but that could be handled with an optional upgrade option, either for a nominal fee, or with additional services ala TD Canada Trust. 

Key Bank homepage with iPod offer (July 23, 2007)

Key Bank iPod offer landing page (July 23, 2007)

TD Canada Trust homepage with iPod offer (July 24, 2007)

TD Canada Trust iPod offer landing page (July 24, 2007)

Even though my wife tries to throw them out at least once per year, I still have every issue of Wired Magazine in a stack in my home office. It remains my favorite magazine, although I no longer devour every issue within the first 48 hours.

I still take notice when any financial services company advertises within its pages. There aren't usually many to choose from, mostly brokerages and mutual fund conglomerates. But one retail bank has consistently advertised in Wired: Citibank, who made the Wired 40  list of leading companies in 2005 and 2006, but not 2007 (see previous coverage here).

In the August issue of Wired (pp. 31-32, see inset), Citibank has a gorgeous two-page spread, featuring, drum roll please, MOBILE BANKING (see note 1). For nearly 10 years, the gold standard of online banking image advertising was the attractive 30-something guy/gal relaxing on the beach, supposedly doing their online banking from a chair (note 2).

It looks like the mobile phone is the new laptop, at least in Madison Avenue photo shoots, especially now that the iPhone is the sexiest new technology since the Palm Pilot. So expect to see plenty of advertising — print, Internet and television — showing happy 30-somethings taking care of their banking in a few seconds on their way to the beach/theatre/dinner. Sure, it's mostly fiction in 2007, but mobile will be the "sizzle" in bank advertising for years to come.

Here's the slightly truncated version of the Wired ad (sorry my scanner is only 8.5 x 14):

Notes:
1. The add also appeared across pp. 3-4 in the July issue of Wired. 

2. I go to the beach every year, and I've never seen anyone with a laptop there. Even if you forget about the possible sand and water damage, there is no way you can see the screen through the glare, without risking permanent damage to your eyes. I have a $2,000+ Thinkpad tablet, and I can barely make out the screen in the shade on my deck.   

One of the questions that I imagine many companies in virtually every industry is asking themselves is: How can we engage in the social web?

A lot of companies, banks and credit unions among them, see the opportunities that currently exist, but can't find their way in. One of my favourite quotes is from Rob Cottingham of Social Signal. He tells audiences who are looking to start a social web project that "before you look in the monitor, you should look in the mirror". It's fun to start a new project, and often people will start planning a way to leverage a new marketing trend such as social networking before they take a good look at themselves to determine if they have the stomach to open themselves up and take the leap.

Maybe it's not a matter of companies opening themselves up, but understanding where their openness already exists. Every company likely has an area where they are doing the kind of work where they can engage an audience in collaboration. It's a matter of taking the essence of a company's brand and brand positioning and marrying that with their philanthropic activities.

Most companies that are looking to the social web are, I suspect, also looking for ways to further leverage their existing community activities. I wonder how many of them put those two challenges together into the same project. Let's look at one good potential example in the banking sector.

Bank of America

Before we begin, I should disclose that I don't know anyone at Bank of America and what follows is my outsider opinion only – some food for thought.

According to bankofamerica.com, they sum up their brand this way:

Bank of America’s brand positioning, “Bank of Opportunity,” is emblematic of what Bank of America has always strived for throughout its history ― to create opportunities for the individuals, businesses and communities we serve throughout the world.

In March, Bank of America announced a $20 Billion environmental sustainability initiative. This is a major investment into changing their business operations and offering new products and services that have a sustainable focus. And yet their website hardly mentions this information. Doing a search on “climate change” on their website only brings up some press releases, a position paper, a speech and some other links to corporate areas of the site. I'm sure they have plans to bring this more front and centre, but what are some good ways to do that online in a way that's meaningful and gains them effective brand differentiation?

This philanthropic work provides an excellent chance to give up a little control in a focused area where they have a clear desire to become a true leader. Based on the amount of money they're planning on investing, this is obviously going to become a key differentiator for their brand, and I imagine they'll find a way to link this back to their brand positioning: Bank of Opportunity. It's not hard to see how that could work, and work well.

As they put money into their first initiatives, they could utilize the social web to engage community to find out first-hand where their money could make the biggest impact, or where their customers think they ought to invest. They could be harnessing the wisdom of crowds to help them create and develop environmentally friendly financial products and services. This could take the form of a social network, they could leverage Facebook, they could start a wiki or a blog. Eventually, when they have some real data about their climate change activities and impacts, they could release that data as an API so people who are passionate about climate change could take the raw data and create mashups that I can't even begin to imagine (but marrying large scale environmental data with Google maps could start to yield some interesting visual possibilities and show how Bank of America is improving America, perhaps even at the neighbourhood level).

By opening up and letting the chips fall where they may, albeit in a calculated way, BofA gets free advice, they attract the input of leaders in this area and they start educating people on their activities. They could introduce this new corporate activity slowly so people understand why they're doing it (perhaps link the concept that America has to be sustainable in order to be prosperous, and that's why a bank is putting money into this kind of work).

This would also help them win over some needed friends and allies in the environmental movement and encourage dialogue about the challenges we face as a society. There are myriad opportunities for them here, and exciting time to be in the marketing and communications departments, I imagine.

I look forward to seeing how they promote this good work. So far, their first initiative of helping a non-profit purchase an old growth forest with private capital is highly impressive, though definitely under-leveraged on their website. I hope they find a way to surface this work so that people learn about it - I think the social web could be the answer.

Looking for an eye-catching grand prize for your fall sweepstakes? You can't beat the new Smart fortwo car hitting to hit our shores in six months. According to today's Wall Street Journal (here), more than 20,000 (make that 20,001) have already plopped down $99 for a "reservation" for the Smart fortwo (here).

Not only is this a sexy sweeps prize, it has green appeal as a less resource-intensive vehicle compared to larger gas cars. While hybrids will still be more fuel efficient for in-city driving, the $12,000 base price makes it much more affordable that the $20,000+ Prius.

With the perfect storm of higher gas prices, the rebirth of environmental awareness, and America's obsession with cars, the Smart micro is almost guaranteed to be a hit, at least in urban markets. Anyone who's been in Europe in the last 10 years knows how popular these cars already are.

Financial Institution Opportunities
There's hundreds of ways to use a coveted, and potentially rationed, consumer product in your marketing efforts. For example:

• At $10,000 less than the Mini Cooper, this is the cost-conscious choice for a sweeps grand prize
• Use the car to reinforce your smart banking choices such as paperless banking, auto bill pay, and so forth
• Smart loans that include a preapproved auto loan along with a reservation for the car
• Use the car's "CO 2 champion status" (see inset) to reinforce your green banking efforts
• Paint the car with your brand and provide smart rides around town...include a form on your website for requesting a ride; for extra credit offer text message reservations
• Work with Smart USA dealers in your area to offer joint promotions

And you already know we have a weakness for the car; so as an added benefit, any banking promotion involving it has a great chance of making it to the pages of Netbanker. Just give me a heads-up here. 

Bank of America and Chase, two of the three largest U.S. banks, are putting an online spin on free checking offers using online banking, security, and other benefits to encourage applications. On the surface, Bank of America's approach appears much more effective. And with no direct-deposit requirement, it surely generates more new accounts. However, without knowing how the free accounts convert to profitable relationships, it's impossible for an outsider to recommend one approach over another.    

Bank of America
Bank of America's free checking offer (see note 1) is difficult to overlook (screenshot below).  The top-of-the-page banner has animations that showcase the major benefits:

• online banking
• bill payment
• "Keep the Change" debit card savings program
• SiteKey security

The teaser "We're redefining Free Checking" creates interest while the bright blue "open an account" and "special online-only offer" further entice prospect to click through the banner.

The landing page (screenshot below) reiterates the online benefits and features a large laptop to reinforce the high-tech nature of the account. Two additional benefits are added to the list:

• Free debit card with security protections
• Free ATM access at 17,000 BofA machines 

Notes:

1. The free checking banner appeared in a visit to the homepage from a Seattle IP address at 10 AM Pacific time today. It did not appear on afternoon searches from several computers.

2. The bank uses a live chat popup after lingering on the application for a short time (click on image right for closeup).

Chase Bank
Chase's homepage banner uses the "kitchen sink" approach with an image of an ATM machine, debit card, paper checkbook, laptop, and PDA along the top. The mobile phone is a good addition, but the ATM machine and laptop are so small, they aren't easily recognizable in a quick scan (see screenshot below).

Another problem: the paper checkbook, which is centered and slightly larger than the others, seems to get an inordinate amount of attention. I'm not sure that the checkbook or the debit card add much value. U.S. consumers pretty much realize those are included in a checking account.

Chase's landing page leaves a lot to be desired. The benefits are listed in small, gray type that is relatively hard to read. And the only call to action, if you can describe it as one, is the last line in small blue type, with an underlined "apply online." No buttons + no color + no large font + no offer = no interest.  

At the Mobile Commerce Summit, we heard Citibank is running national spots featuring its mFoundry-powered mobile banking service, Citi Mobile <citibank.com/citimobile>.  (Hat tip Richard Crone).

Back in the old days, like late 2006, we would have had to request a copy of the ad from the bank. But today, everything is on YouTube, so check out the 30-second spot below (screenshot at right). 

While its not as appealing as Apple's iPhone commercials, the Citi spot does a good job demonstrating the utility of mobile banking. It features a close-in shot of a couple driving down the road with the wife making a quick forgotten payment in a few seconds, while still carrying on a conversation with her husband. It is also great branding, furthering Citi's long-term positioning as a technology leader.*

What it Means
National advertising by the big banks, as well as carriers introducing their mobile wallets later this year and next, will create considerable awareness among consumers. Although, usage will be light for the next few years, mobile commerce is NOT a fad. This is one area you should address very carefully in your upcoming budgeting process for 2008.

For more information, see our Mobile Banking Report.

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*Citi would look even hipper if it embedded the YouTube ad in its mobile banking landing page.

Apple's iPhone has garnered the kind of media hype we haven't seen since Windows 95 launched Aug. 24, 1995. I don't know if people are lined up at AT&T Wireless/Cingular stores yet, but I'm sure we'll see huge crowds mugging for the cameras at midnight, June 28.

But unlike 1995, when only Wells Fargo could brag about "Windows 95 compatibility,"  most banks offer services that will work on the iPhone, at least to some extent. While the phone has not been made widely available to third-party testers, the built-in Safari browser provides website designers with much of what they need to make website functions "iPhone compatible." One issue: The phone is not expected to support Java (see Design Issues below).  

Product & Marketing Ideas

Here are 10 ways to jump on the iPhone bandwagon:

 1. iPhone loans: It costs $500 or $600, not including the monthly AT&T fee. As a promotion, you could offer term loans, specifically designed for purchases of the iPhone (see note 1). (See our next post for more info on the Prosper loan listing to the