To support the launch of its new online self-service offering, UBank, NAB created a blog at myfuturebank.org. But the bank closed the blog earlier this month after one of its employees posted comments posing as a legitimate customer.

At first, the impostor denied he was a bank employee, but forensic internet analysis proved that all his comments originated from an NAB server inside the bank.

“Which of you guys are advising NAB Bank on social media? Whoever you are, you are making a real friggin’ mess of it, and you make it worse for all of us!”
– Laurel Papworth, Social Networks

The revelation immediately sparked a Twitter firestorm, followed by waves of protests across the blogoshpere: “FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!”

One blog post about NAB’s handling of the situation was so controversial, the blogger decided to pull the article down.

This isn’t the first time NAB’s found itself in deep Web 2.0 doo-doo. Earlier this year, the bank was blasted for spamming sports blogs.

Reality Check: When it comes to social media, transparency is the law of the land. Shilling will get you skewered. It almost always backfires.

Key Questions:

• What did NAB tell employees about the UBank blog? Anything? Did employees receive an announcement? Did they receive guidelines on how they should and should not participate?
• Why didn’t NAB leave the blog up and deal with the problem openly and honestly? Did they really need to scrub the whole project?

In its official response, NAB says “any unidentified comments on blogs are unauthorized.”

myfuturebank.org
“We need your help. Please share with us and our visitors what frustrates you about your bank,
and more importantly, what you would do differently to improve your banking experience.”

Even though the site invites people to “share their frustrations,” Monty Hamilton, the head of UBank, popped in and left a comment reminding people to “keep it positive.”

Someone then pointed out the contradiction between Hamilton’s request to “keep it positive” and the site’s instructions. They went on to say, “I think this site is a pointless piece of junk. The banks already know what customers WANT — it is hardly rocket science.”

The next comment is the one that apparently came from inside NAB:

“the last poster obviously is an aggitated employee from a competitor bank, UBank is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale banking world, i set up a TD with them, i didnt have to speak to a robot 1st, i got professional service from them and this is at 3:30 in the morning, go UBank, i love you.”

Key Takeaway: If your staff participate in your social media projects, they can’t masquerade as legitimate customers. The same thing applies to your ad agency. Everyone on your side that might have “an agenda” needs to always reveal their connection to your financial institution.

Bottom Line: Social media projects can build your brand, so don’t be afraid to experiment with them. But never try to “salt the mine.” If you get outted, it will cause damage to your brand and make it much more difficult to launch any successful social media projects in the future.

Note: These topics (and others) will be covered by Jeffry Pilcher, publisher of The Financial Brand, in an upcoming presentation, “Results 2.0.” Catch it at Finance 2.0 next year in New York.

Ten thousand people took Wells Fargo up on its latest promotion, Someday Stories. The promotion had people submit a 250-word story about how they’d use $100,000 to fulfill a dream. Five finalists have already won $10,000. One of them will win an additional $100,000:

• Danny from Provo, Utah wants to become a physical therapist
• Erin from Prescott Valley, Arizona wants to open a used bookstore
• Evelyn from Sharon, Massachusetts wants to help her daughter expand her magazine
• Mary from Rye, Colorado wants to help her mom open a hospice home
• Tiffany from Reno, Nevada wants to become a doctor

You can read each of the five finalists’ stories here.

Local news outlets covered the ceremony as each of these finalists were presented their $10,000 check from Wells Fargo — delivered by stagecoach, of course.

At the Someday Stories microsite, you can vote for your favorite person+cause, but registration is required. You can also invite a friend to vote, and there’s a link to the company’s Facebook page — two small features that, nonetheless, illustrate Wells Fargo online prowess.

Wells Fargo has a YouTube channel, including the video overview of the five finalists (also embedded in the microsite):

This is the second online contest Wells Fargo has done with its partners at Meme Labs. Last fall, the bank had a Center Stage in the Rose Parade video contest. Contestants were required to download a song provided by Wells Fargo, then sing along in their own homemade music video. People voted on their favorite videos, and the winning video aired during the 2008 Rose Bowl.

A bit surprisingly, Wells Fargo is comfortable having its custom URLs reroute to Meme Labs servers. In this latest promotion, wellsfargo.com/somedaystory redirects you to memelabs.com/somedaystories. It’s interesting, especially considering the bank can definitely afford its own servers.

Wells Fargo — that venerable financial institution that uses a 150-year old stagecoach for its logo — has become one of the world’s most savvy online marketers. As Visible Banking noted, Wells Fargo is the…

• First U.S. bank with a blog
• First bank with a student loan blog
• First bank with a business banking blog
• First bank in the world with a Second Life presence
• First bank on MySpace
• First bank with 2, 3, and 4 blogs
• First bank with an avatar persona on MySpace
• First bank with a VP Social Media

The funny thing is, you seldom hear about Wells Fargo’s online successes. For some strange reason, Wells Fargo isn’t often used as a shimmery example in presentations from Web 2.0 koolaid juicers. Maybe it’s because Wells Fargo does just about everything in-house, so there aren’t a dozen vendors trying to claim the fame? Maybe Wells Fargo has no real incentive to toot their own horn on the public speaking circuit? Or maybe this stuff works so well that they’d rather keep it to themselves? Who knows.

Key Question: When will an online social media campaign from Wells Fargo have a direct product-promotion tie-in? Or will they continue to use online social media primarily as a tool for goodwill and educational purposes?

There’s much talk about Web 2.0 and social media in the financial space these days. Often, you get the impression that you’re failing if you don’t have a MySpace page, a Facebook account, a blog, a Twitter account, etc.

Reality Check:

• Most people don’t want to hang out at a website created by a bank or credit union. There are very, very few examples to the contrary.
• Financial institutions grossly underestimate the immense amounts of time, energy and money it takes to create even a semi-successful Web 2.0 presence.
• Web 2.0 is all about creating content and engagement. What can you offer (and to whom?) that isn’t already available somewhere else in a better, bigger, or more well-known online venue?
• Don’t listen to anyone who mandates a specific Web 2.0 tool for your financial institution. Web 2.0 tools are simply a means to an end. They are not the only way to reach Gen-Y. There are other ways to reach the same audience.

The Make/Buy Decision

Building your own Web 2.0 presence from scratch isn’t the only option. You can successfully “draft” off someone who already has an established online reputation.

For example, take KeyBank. They teamed up with Etch-a-Sketch sensation and YouTube celebrity George Vlosich. This viral, time-lapse video shows the Etch-A-Sketch portrait of NBA star Carmelo Anthony as it was being drawn.

More than a million viewers have seen the KeyBank video on sites across the internet. The campaign won top honors at this year’s ABA awards ceremony.

If KeyBank set out to produce its own viral video, what would they have made? And how many people would have watched it?

Here’s another example: Citibank’s recent sponsorship of the popular Aussie entertainment website, ninemsn.

And then there’s Forum Credit Union, based in Indianapolis, who sponsors the Colts Fan Forum, an interactive subsection of the official NFL Colts.com website. The forum boasts 1,673 topics with 42,147 comments from its 9,395 members.

The site says there are over 1,500 active members. There were over 150 registered users online at the time this article was written. That’s 150 opportunities in one day to expose users to a Forum Credit Union marketing message as each one signs in. Not to mention the opportunities presented as each new user signs-up.

Reality Check: The NFL’s Colts might be able to get 10,000 fans at a website to a talk about something they are deeply passionate about. If you build your own Web 2.0 presence, how many people do you think you can draw? You don’t have Peyton Manning, so what do you have to offer?

Tips & Advice

If you’re going to partner with an existing, established online success, here are some tips:

1. Think locally.
   Whether you’re a huge regional bank or a small town credit union, you want an online community that covers your geographic area and not much more. You want to minimize “waste” just like you would with any media. You don’t buy TV channels in markets you’re not in, so why would you do something similar online? Pick the right partner and you’ll make sure you’re reaching the right audience.
2. Negotiate an exclusive.
   If you can’t be the only marketer tied to the website, event, etc., at least ensure you’re the only financial institution.
3. Someone needs to own it.
   There are no easy solutions. You can’t just write a check and expect big results. To maximize your opportunities, someone needs to be answering questions, representing your financial institution and interacting with the online community you’re sponsoring. Your logo gets you halfway to first base. Your people, your presence and your participation are what make you a well-respected member of an online community.  (Note: It will probably require at least 20 hours a week.)
4. Be creative.
   In what ways can you participate? A special profile in the community? What freebies can you offer? Where does your logo go? Banner ads? Email marketing? Can you sponsor a special section of the community? What can you do offline? How can you promote your relationship with the community to a broader audience?
5. Understand your motives.
   If you’re looking to build business, you’ll have to make sure your partner gives you opportunities to do more than slap a logo in a few places. You might be creating tons of “engagement,” but if it doesn’t help drive new business with your organization, you seriously need to ask yourself: “Why are we doing this?” You could certainly partner with an online community for purely altruistic motives. If that’s the case, just be clear with everyone on your team that it’s a CSR initiative. People in your organization need to know what to expect. Otherwise, someone will throw it back in your face someday and your partnership will get the axe.

Bottom Line: Establishing a significant, respected and credible online presence by teaming-up with a website, forum, venue or personality that already has a community of followers can take a lot less time and energy than trying to create something from scratch. Of course it will cost more, but it’s about as close to a shortcut as you’ll find. And it still takes a lot of energy (read: “manpower”) to successfully support it.

Last week, Bank of America launched Morris on Campus,™ Life According to an Upperclassman™. According to the bank, the promotion is designed to “educate and empower students to take control of their finances and bank with confidence in this new academic year.”

Unlike other Gen-Y online promotions, “Morris” is not the product of a “spokester contest,” but is instead a 23-year old actor from Teaneck, New Jersey, the bank hired for the promotion. You can view his MySpace profile here, where he goes by the pseudonym “Lo Profile.”

The campaign includes a microsite embedded within the B of A mastersite. The microsite includes a series of 7-8 video webisodes, some tips, tools and a glossary. Here are the highlights:

College Tips

13 financial tips (although #2 and #13 are the same)
7 dorm room tips (although #1 and #7 are the same)
9 food tips
7 class tips
5 random tips
======================================

“Be Money on Campus” Contest

There’s a contest to submit your own tips too, but you have to be 18-25 years of age and going to college. Five finalists will be selected by B of A late next month. Each finalist will receive $5,000, then compete for an additional $25,000.

The finalists will have 14 days to use social media tools — including video, PowerPoint, third-party endorsements and a mandatory essay of 500 words (or less) — to argue why their tip is the most helpful and relevant their peers.
======================================

Student Financial Handbook

A 65-page guide to basic financial services. Chapters include budgeting, checking, savings, investing, online banking, bank fees, credit cards, identity theft, a quiz and a glossary that’s 10 times better than the one at the On Campus website.
======================================

Student Package

Includes CampusEdge Checking, with a check card, online banking and a Stuff Happens card that gives you a one-time bank fee refund, no matter what.
======================================

B of A will also be taking its On Campus promotion on tour, with stops at colleges and universities across the country in coming weeks.

This is at least the third high-profile social media initiative from Bank of America this year. In April, B of A launched an online competition to support its Olympics’ sponsorship called America’s Cheer. And in June, B of A introduced Mo Rocca on Banking. (Note: there are blimps in both the Mo Rocca promotion and the Morris campaign. What’s up with that?)

You can read B of A’s press release about Morris on Campus here.

WSECU is taking the fight to banks in a small but brave online initiative targeting college students called “What the B.” The campaign includes a microsite, blog and visits at college campus events.

The campaign’s central creative hook centers on a playful-yet-derogatory portrayal of banks. For starters, the credit union has shortened the word “B-A-N-K-S” down to “B—S.” Ouch.

WSECU substitutes a bleep everywhere the word “bank” occurs in the campaign’s copy and videos. You’ll get the idea after you watch this YouTube video:

In addition to Nicole’s testimonial, there are three other videos to help kickoff the campaign, including “Tani,” “Stacie” and “Johnny.”

WSECU is holding no punches. They sling plenty of zingers at banks. For instance, they accuse banks of “going Bonnie-and-Clyde on your assets,” and “giving you the shaft.”

In an interview with The Financial Brand, Eric Jones, Marketing Project Specialist/WSECU, said the idea for WhatTheB was hatched “in a spontaneous moment between a graphic designer and a business development officer.”

Jones said the two were talking when one referred to a “credit union” as a “bank.” “’Hey, watch your mouth. That’s a four-letter word,’” one said to the other sarcastically. And the campaign took off from there.

The content was developed almost entirely in-house by WSECU, with some web support from an outside vendor. Four staffers shared responsibilities for development of the campaign. It took roughly three months to plan and launch the site.

Jones says WSECU’s CEO and board were cautioned about possible reactions to a tongue-in-cheek campaign, but they very much supported the idea of trying new things to connect with Gen-Y. WSECU was ready to take a chance.

“You can’t just put fresh paint on an old Model T and expect the varsity football team to start lining up for test drives.”
– Kristina Walters,
VP/Marketing for WSECU

“We wanted to do something radically different from our more traditional, conservative brand,” said Kristina Walters, VP/Marketing for WSECU. “You can’t just put fresh paint on an old Model T and expect the varsity football team to start lining up for test drives.”

So true.

Jones described WhatTheB as an experiment, saying it’s WSECU’s version of “dipping a toe in the water” to test social media as a member-recruitment tool.

As far as Gen-Y promotions go, the campaign has humble aspirations — nothing of the magnitude of something like Young & Free, a promotion so ambitious it’s got its own roaming Guitar Hero competition truck. With only a blog and a four-page microsite, WhatTheB should be relatively easy to manage, and a good way to “learn on the job.”

It does not appear that the WhatTheB campaign has been integrated into WSECU’s website. What would be really fun is if WSECU hotlinked the 20 or so occurrences of the word “bank” in its main website back to the WhatTheB.com microsite. Better yet, replace the word “bank” with “b@%k” and hotlink that.

Jones says WSECU will continue working on WhatTheB through October when the credit union’s “Join and Get $25” student promotion ends.

In the meantime, WhatTheB’s blog will be fueled by a copywriter and a support staff member, but may be expanded, Jones says. WSECU has an advisory team of Gen-Y staff members who might be able to contribute to the blog and other member-facing parts of the campaign.

When BankWest in Australia expanded to the East Coast, they redesigned their branch prototype and gave it a total makeover. To tout their new retail stores, the bank put a neat, interactive flash tour on its website.

The tour includes 11 different “hot spots.” Pause your mouse on a hotspot and it reveals some little tidbit about the branch.

These stores should fit nicely with BankWest’s brand theme, “Happy Banking” (previous coverage from The Financial Brand here). If you haven’t seen their outrageous TV spots, you should definitely go check them out.

To give you an idea of how far BankWest takes “happy,” they are the “Official Happy Partner” for the 2008 Australian Olympics.

Also supporting their “Happy Banking” theme is a novelty microsite that defies explanation. It must be seen to be believed. (Hint: Singing kittens are involved.)

Now the bank has a branch model that fits right in. While the branches don’t ooze “happy” as much as the rest of the brand, there is a general perky cheer to the design.

They should put out Skittles in candy dishes for customers. They could call them “happy pills.”

:60 seconds on BankWest’s new East Coast retail stores:

• BankWest ditched traditional teller bays in lieu of cash recyclers, which allow more freedom of movement within the store for both staff and customers.
• BankWest refers to its new branches as “stores” as they will be retailing non-financial merchandise such as money boxes and financial books.
• Meeting spaces have been designed with movable walls so that more space can be created in the store for customer seminars.
• Traditional bank branches are often quite masculine, sterile places. The new design incorporates more earthy tones with wood and cork flooring and feature lighting. Or, as the interactive tour puts it, “Warm, friendly colors, not traditional bank colors.”

Source: The Bank Channel

“A buttoned-down organization trying to look hip is like a 50-year-old drunk uncle at a wedding trying to dance with teenagers.”
– Charlotte Observer

An article in the Sunday edition of the Charlotte Observer entitled “Your Bank Wants to Be Your Friend” takes a skeptical look at financial institutions as they attempt to carve a presence on the popular social-networking site Facebook.

The story includes a couple of zingers, like, “Cancer walks are more inspiring than home equity loans,” and “a blogging band is cooler than a blogging bank.”

It’s not all negative. There’s also this advice to banks and credit unions pursuing a Facebook strategy:

• Act like yourself.
• Offer games, videos and contests not available on your regular website.
• You must accept negative comments.

You can read the the whole story here. Jim Bruene’s NetBanker is quoted.

As financial institutions across the country make announcements about their 2008 scholarship initiatives, Tinker Federal Credit Union is taking a unique approach by having an online video contest.

The concept is simple:

1. Think about what money means to you.
2. Show us any way you want in a video you make yourself.
3. Upload your video for your chance to win a $2,000 scholarship.

• Deadline: submitted before March 14
• Voting: March 31
• Winner: Announced April 7th

The concept’s centerpiece is www.whatmoneymeanstome.org, a website designed by Oklahoma City-based Third Degree Advertising. Fortunately, the underlying marketing concept is simple, so the website’s interface can be simple. The site’s overall design is casual and carefree.

The domain name was secured only two weeks ago, meaning this campaign will take less than four months to go from inception to completion. (NOTE: Initially, only the .org domain had been secured, but Tinker elected to obtain the .com domain after a suggestion by The Financial Brand.)

According to this article in the Credit Union Times, Tinker FCU will apparently be utilizing a “panel of judges” in conjunction with online voting. It’s unclear whether these judges will be pre-screening entries to choose which videos will be voted on, or whether they will actually carry some sway over the selection of the final winner. Online votes are frequently abused, so the “judges” may be the credit union’s way of contending with manipulated results.

To promote the contest, Tinker FCU is sending e-mails to 600 college professors and select high school officials across Oklahoma.

Tinker FCU has $1.5 billion in assets and 185,000 members.

Key Questions:

• Will the campaign be adequately promoted through just email?
• Will “indirect marketing” to educators prove successful? Will the people getting emails pass word on to student – the target audience – as the credit union hopes?
• How many entries will Tinker receive?
• Is $2,000 enough to spur significant participation?
• Will the credit union garner extra PR coverage from the campaign?

Bottom Line: As Matt Stratton, SVP marketing, said, “We thought we’d give this a try and see how it goes.”

Informal research conducted by The Financial Brand indicates a significant increase in the utilization of video sharing tools such as YouTube by credit unions.

Search results for “credit union” on YouTube went up 47% over a 3-month period:

• October 2007: 524
• January 2008: 772

Google Video results for “credit union” increased 41%:

• October 2007: 755
• January 2008: 1,069

Googling the term “credit union” while limiting the search to only www.youtube.com yielded 44% more results.

• October 2007: 1,330
• January 2008: 1,920

Credit unions are using sites like YouTube for a range of purposes. Most, like Service Credit Union, are uploading their TV commercials such as this one.

But some are using it for other purposes, such as UK Credit Union who made a one-and-a-half minute video depicting light-hearted office humor.

Charlotte Metro Credit Union created a 5-minute video retracing all the work that went into their production of their TV spot featuring NBA star Muggsy Bogues.

Ad agencies are uploading commercials they produce for credit unions (with or without the express permission of their clients), such as this one from production company Kaye Lites for Service Credit Union.

There are also online videos from outfits like CUNA, whose “Little Guy” video for small business loans has been viewed almost 7,000 times.

As credit unions get bigger, more and more of them have the resources and need to pursue bigtime ad strategies like TV campaigns, some of which find their way on to video sharing sites like YouTube. The occassional credit union is even producing web-only videos.

Bottom Line: The trend speaks for itself. The irony is that credit unions’ capacity for mass media TV campaigns increases while traditional TV gives up more and more turf to the Internet.

[Editorial Note: This article is a reprint of an article that originally appeared in an OpenSourceCU post on August 23rd, 2007.]

I haven’t picked up an issue of Adweek in quite a while, because what’s happening on Madison Avenue with the Budweiser account doesn’t really affect me. But I picked up an issue today and thumbed it all the way through. Boy oh boy, has that publication changed in the last few years.

Adweek used to be all about global agencies and massive TV ad campaigns. Now it’s almost all about new media, or at least that how it seems.

Here are three articles from this week’s current issue:

• Why Barbie can have a social website, but not Coke
• YouTube, politics and “Obama Girl”
• Advertising in video games

The story about how Coke — the world’s biggest, most valuable brand — couldn’t sustain its social website, “The Coke Show,” was the most interesting. From the article:

“‘The Coke Show’ joins a growing list of cautionary tales, including Wal-Mart’s ill-fated social network ‘The Hub’ and Anheuser-Busch’s ‘Bud.tv,’ showing it is far from easy to tap the same kind of sharing vibe that’s fueled the rise of MySpace, YouTube and Facebook.”

Relevance:

1. Learn from Adweek. They see which way the wind is blowing. Marketing — even advertising — is increasingly becoming a dialogue with consumers. Traditional media still has its place, but the days of one-sided, one-directional marketing are numbered. It will be more and more common for consumers — not advertisers — to control the discussion and pick the venues.

2. Success isn’t guaranteed. If big brands like Coke, Budweiser and Wal-Mart can’t find success after applying all their might and muscle, others are sure to fail also. The rules are still being written and no one has all the answers. Can your credit union’s CEO handle this level of ambiguity and uncertainty? Especially when the ROI is fuzzy (at best).

3. Don’t rush into the Web 2.0 world blindly. Some organizations seem to think “if you build it, they will come,” but it’s not that simple. You need to know your target audience and what they want to talk about BEFORE you launch a blog or a MySpace page. And don’t underestimate the commitment it takes once you’re up and running. You’ll need to devote time, energy and focus to your Web 2.0 initiatives every day (hint: hours of writing).