Since I began blogging in 2004, I've usually run a year-end post looking at the holiday marketing efforts of the top-20 U.S. banks (links below). This year, only 7 of the 20 banks are using holiday or seasonal imagery on their homepages. That's a decrease of 3 over last year.

As usual, PNC Bank is the gold standard for holiday bank promotions, with its long-running (25+ years) "cost of Christmas index" which quantifies the cost of procuring all the items mentioned in the famous song, "12 Days of Christmas." Following is a quick overview of the promotions, including a 1-to 5-bulb rating. 

Previous posts: 2010, 2009 part 1, 2009 part 2, 2007, 2006, 2006, 2004

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Big banks in the holiday spirit
(rated 1 to 5 bulbs)

PNC: Christmas cost index

• Cost of Christmas based on the song 12 Days of Christmas

Score:

Homepage

Landing page: Amazing microsite, wonderful graphics, and slow loading (link)

Fifth Third: holiday sweeps

• Pay Your Bills sweeps with holiday graphics
• Small ad with a card wrapped with ribbon which directs users to branches for "holiday shopping made easy," presumably for gift cards, but neither the ad nor the landing page make that clear

Score:

ING Direct: Mobile usage sweeps

• 12 Days of Mobile sweeps

Score:

Landing page

Chase: sweeps and car loans

• Winner Wonderland, credit card sweeps with one entry for every credit card purchase and 5 entries for every donation put on the Chase card
• Add joy to your wallet, car refinance promotion

Score:

BB&T: Visa gift card

• Small advertisement in lower right

Score:

Homepage

TD Bank: Visa gift card

• Small advertisement in lower right (below the fold on my laptop)

Score:

Homepage

Key Bank: gift cards

• Very small gift-card promo, below the fold on my laptop and rotating with a half-dozen other items

Score:

Homepage

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Notes:
1. No holiday imagery on the homepages of BofA, Wells Fargo, Citibank, HSBC, US Bank, SunTrust, Capital One, Citizens, Regions, Harris, Bank of the West, Union Bank, Comercia
2. Screenshots taken from Ft. Myers, FL, IP address, between 7 and 8 PM, 20 Dec 2011    
3. Credit: Happy Holidays animation from LayoutSparks.com

I don't know if it has anything to do with the publicity Mint received in recent months following its acquisition by Intuit or the promotional links from Quicken's website, but the online PFM juggernaut just blew the roof off its monthly traffic. According to Compete, in January, Mint had 1.7 million unique visitors, 600,000 more than a year earlier.

To provide a little context, not counting the Dec. to April tax-time traffic spike at Intuit, Mint's traffic is now slightly HIGHER than that of its parent company (see chart #1 below). That gives you a little understanding of why Intuit coughed up $170 million for the startup.

Another way to look at it: Mint now has as much traffic as the tenth largest U.S. retail bank, BB&T (see chart #2).

The interesting question for 2010: Now that Mint is part of the establishment, what startup will rise up to challenge it? Or will the banks, back on a path to profitability, fill the need going forward? 

Chart 1: Mint's traffic is now similar to Intuit's non-tax-time traffic

Source: Compete (link)

Chart 2: Mint now has about the same number of visitors as the tenth largest U.S. retail bank, BB&T
Note: Mint is blue line below

 
Source: Compete (link)

Note: For more information on the PFM space, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features.

Most major financial institutions have been pushing estatements for several years (see previous coverage). The appeal of shaving $10 to $20 off the annual servicing cost for every account is an attractive payoff.

Yet, you rarely see estatement appeals elevated to the homepage. BB&T bucks convention with this attractive graphic with the big-three benefits: security, convenience, accessibility (see first screenshot). The green button leads to a landing page reiterating these three benefits plus adding the environmental message.

Bottom line: It's a good, educational effort. But with most consumers already aware of online statements, there's little motivation to change something that's worked fine for the past 10, 20, 30 or more years. 

If you are serious about reducing paper and postage expense, give your customers a reason to change their behavior:

• Low-cost gifts, such as a pair of movie tickets, 2-for-1 meal, $10 Starbucks card, etc.
• Sweepstakes (one-time or ongoing; see Wells Fargo example below)
• Extra online services such as increased archives or an electronic vault
• Enhanced security guarantee
• Discounts on other services

But whatever you do, don't introduce a fee for paper statements unless you want to get T-Mobiled.

BB&T homepage promotes online statements (7 Oct 2009)
Access via Seattle IP address; we do not have any accounts at the bank

Landing page (link)

Wells Fargo $60,000 estatement sweepstakes landing page (link)

Note:
For more information, see our Online Banking Report: Lifetime Statement Archives (June 2005)

Branch Banking and Trust (BB&T), <bbt.com> has one of the better-looking bank homepages. Although a bit cluttered for our taste, the colors, fonts, and other design elements are well conceived (see screenshot below). It's certainly far better than the previous version, which was replaced in late 2003.

One area that's a bit unusual is the prominence of the TurboTax cross-promotion. On Saturday, Feb. 24, the BB&T website displayed a prominent start button in the upper-right PLUS a medium-size (250 x 125) banner along the left side (see screenshot below). Update: The TurboTax banner is NOT displayed today; it appears to have been replaced by the bank's $50 bonus for a new checking account. The start button remains.

I'll give BB&T credit for timeliness, but for the few buck-per-return in fees, I'm not sure online tax prep warrants so much attention. It's especially surprising to see a major bank dropping users into a third-party site with no warning message about impending transfer. Also, although TurboTax's co-branded site carries three links back to BB&T, it's primarily Intuit-branded with separate registration and login required (see second screenshot below).

While millions will use Turbotax online during the next seven weeks (see 2005/2006 sales right), there is still an underlying security concern that keeps many users from entering their family's social security numbers and intimate financial details into a website at a software company.

We'd like the co-branded TurboTax site a whole lot better if it was integrated into online banking, especially with an automated data-import function and security assurances.*

If you are thinking about promoting TurboTax this tax season, here are the pros and cons to consider:

Pros:

• Positions your bank and website as useful for everyday financial tasks
• Associates your brand with a powerful, positive personal finance brand which sold more than 12 million copies of TurboTax/TurboTax online last year
• Reminds customers to get started on their taxes; reinforces the role of the financial institution as a consumer advocate
• TurboTax online is an excellent program that simplifies a complex task about as much as possible

Cons:

• Raises security concerns about the submission and storage of ultra-sensitive financial info online
• Could be bank liability if a phishing scheme or website takeover results in exposure of sensitive data
• Generates customer service calls to ask questions about BB&T's involvement or about taxes in general
• Necessitates tech support if customers have questions or problems with TurboTax 
• Competes with other bank promotions for users' attention
• Users may be disappointed to discover they have to undergo a completely separate registration, username, password, and so on at the TurboTax site

What do you think? Do homepage references to other service providers reinforce the bank's brand while providing some fee income, or should financial institutions concentrate on their core services?

BB&T Homepage, 24 Feb. 2007 <bbt.com>

*Interestingly, BB&T is silent on the security issues inherent in the co-branded site. They neither display the typical "you are leaving our site" warning, nor provide any disclaimers about the use of a third-party site.   

BB&T (Winston-Salem, NC; 500,000 ATM cards), a division of Southern National (Winston-Salem, NC; $21 billion), launched BB&T Online, a new direct-dial PC banking program. Cost is $7.95/mo after the three-month free trial. Up to 20 bill payments per month are included in the monthly fee. Paal Kaperdal is VP Online Banking Manager, 919.831.4414.