Reviewed and written by James Flores, CEO of Subcat Marketing. Subcat Marketing specializes in helping financial marketers reach “sub-categories” such as kids, teens, young adult and family markets. The firm develops fully-custom youth marketing and education programs for financial institutions across the country, and also offers a turnkey program for teens called The Elements of Money, the M3 Money Club for kids, and a financial newsletter for Gen-X parents.

When it comes to engaging kids, the greatest challenge facing any financial institution is sustaining interest. With Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney pumping out children’s programming 24 hours a day, the competition for the attention of a 10-year old is fierce. It’s this fact that makes ING Direct’s newly redesigned kids educational website, Planet Orange, all the more impressive.

Derived from ING Direct’s “Orange” brand, Planet Orange provides learning activities and games designed to teach kids (grades one to six) financial responsibility. Although not quite as entertaining as Spongebob or Ben 10, Planet Orange nevertheless succeeds in delivering much-needed financial literacy in an interesting package — suitable for today’s media-saturated kids.

We Have Liftoff

The Planet Orange website is a multi-dimensional world where kids can complete educational missions set within four exotic continents, each with a quirky ING-inspired name: Orangeopolis, Mandarin Mountains, Navel City and Tangy Town.

Before a child can begin using Planet Orange they must register, which is a pretty easy and safe process. Users provide a first name, grade, state, gender, password and parent’s email address. Kids are also asked to create an astronaut name which is used for their avatar throughout their Planet Orange experience.

Upon login, users find themselves at the Space Station which serves as home base for all the site’s activities. Two young astronauts, Cedric and Amy, serve as tour guides, inviting kids to play games, explore continents and personalize their station.

Here’s the cool part: the only way kids can access all this fun content is by earning and spending virtual money called Obux. Unlike commercial sites such as Webkinz and Club Penguin which require children to use real money to buy virtual items, kids can earn Obux only by completing educational missions or performing virtual jobs. In addition, to complete a mission a child must first buy fuel for their rocket to travel around the planet. Spend too much money on games and accessories, and you won’t have enough for your ride — just like in real life!

This is a great way of introducing the concept of needs and wants. Kids get to experience working, earning their own money and then spending that money responsibly. If they spend too much on fun stuff, there’s a tangible consequence.

Mission: Financial Education

The lessons taught on Planet Orange cover a wide range of topics including saving, credit, investing, inflation and earning income, with each continent dedicated to teaching a specific financial concept.

As my first educational mission I chose Mandarin Mountains, an ancient and mysterious continent containing many of the oldest secrets about money. My first stop was The Cavern of Time, which focuses on the origins of money, followed by Mandarin Museum (needs and wants), The Great Mandarin Hall (budgeting) and finally The Library of Saving (saving money).

Each lesson was well-written and divided into concise, manageable segments—an important factor when constructing educational material for children. It would probably take about 10 to 15 minutes for a 10-year old to complete each lesson—less time than a child would spend watching a single episode of their favorite cartoon. With four continents to explore, each containing four lessons, there are hours of great educational content here.

A big concern is the age appropriateness of the content. Planet Orange is promoted as an educational website for students in first through sixth grade. However, after reviewing the content and comparing it to established child development characteristics, the site seems more appropriate for third to sixth graders. This becomes even more apparent during the educational missions that cover more mature themes such as “inflation,” “choosing stocks” and “long-term planning,” topics that are simply beyond the grasp of most six- and seven-year olds.

Planet Orange omits crucial foundational concepts important for first and second graders to comprehend before jumping into “advanced” concepts such as investing and borrowing. “Identifying coins and bills” and “understanding that cash and checks are both money,” are just two of the types of lessons that need to be addressed if ING intends to serve early elementary students.

In addition, the content must be delivered at an age-appropriate reading level. A quick check for readability using the Flesch-Kincaid reading scale, and the site scored at nearly a third grade level. This may not seem like a big deal for some, but for a six-year old child, it’s like asking them to read on the level of a student who has had nearly twice as much classroom time.

None of this diminishes the quality of the content. However, ING has some room for improvement regarding how to best serve the needs of younger students. One solution would be to create separate tracks based on the level of each individual child. Since ING is capturing each visitor’s grade level at registration, each user could be sent to an appropriate version of the site. First graders would then have relevant lessons delivered to them, while older kids will have access to information and content suitable for their stage of development. Of course this would take a major overhaul of the back-end structure of the site, but the end result would be a more inclusive and personalized teaching tool.

The Fun Stuff

The Mandarin Mountains mission costs 150 Obux to fuel your rocket, but it is totally worth it. I was able to earn more than twice that much simply by completing four lessons and passing a quiz. So what should I do with my earnings? Spend some money!

“Most banks and
credit unions attempting to
create games fail to compete
with the range of options
kids play every day.”

There are three ways to spend money on Planet Orange: Play games, decorate your space station, or outfit your avatar. Being somewhat of a game junkie, I headed straight for the arcade. Now I must say, I’m not a big fan of games offered at financial websites for kids, so I was a bit skeptical going in. Most bank and credit union attempts games fail to compete with the range of options kids play every day.

The games on Planet Orange are somewhat entertaining, but don’t work as a virtual carrot for learning and earning money. ING will need to up the ante if it expects to create stickiness, especially for older kids. Maybe users can pay more Obux to access higher quality games. It could be a lesson on value and price.

On the other hand, if a child chooses to spend their money decorating or buying clothes for their avatar, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. The ING team did a great job of offering a variety of ways for kids to put their personal stamp on their avatar and space station (note: these type of customizations are a favorite online activity of girls in particular).

“There are tons of decorations and accessories for kids to choose from — definitely enough stuff to keep them coming back for more.”

With my earnings I was able to add a lava lamp, hang a disco ball, change the flooring to a groovy purple polka dot pattern and even purchase a pet robodog. When it came to outfitting my avatar, I opted for the XJ Series 3000 Helmet, Star Modulator Chest Console and Hyperlaunch Jet Pack. There are tons of decorations and accessories for kids to choose from — definitely enough stuff to keep them coming back for more.

Space Travel for Parents and Teachers

The Planet Orange website also has sections for teachers and parents. With the Teacher Center, ING provides comprehensive classroom resources for educators including tutorials, lesson plans and worksheets. Unlike the missions contained in the Planet Orange kids site, the lesson plans are divided by grade level, written to comply with most state standards. By aligning the lesson plans with state standards, ING not only helps bring much-needed financial literacy into the classroom, but also helps teachers meet their state-mandated goals. Definitely a win-win situation and an effective way to position ING as a partner to the educational community. The best part for cash-strapped schools—all these resources are free!

In the Parent Center, there’s the requisite children’s privacy statement, program FAQs, and a handy video which explains the program. The Parent Center seems a little light on useful information, especially when compared to the Teacher Center and the Planet Orange site in general. It would be nice to see content written specifically to parents addressing the challenges they face trying to raise money-smart kids in today’s consumer environment. Topics like “helping kids deal with financial peer-pressure,” “managing allowances,” and “helping kids decipher commercials,” could go a long way in providing the tools parents say they need.

Mission Accomplished

Planet Orange is a huge accomplishment. It’s not perfect — there could be better games, separate grade tracks and expanded content for parents. But it goes a long way towards raising the quality of financial literacy programs offered to younger generations.

ING effectively executes the outerspace theme, which should help keep kids engaged long-enough to consume the lessons. There’s plenty of content to keep them busy, and the ability for kids to earn and spend virtual money is a smart way of teaching financial concepts. It’s this transactional element that is at the heart of Planet Orange and provides the educational heft of the program. Although lessons, exercises and quizzes make up most of the content, it’s the experiential education that will stay with a child long after they sign off the site.

“Planet Orange is a huge accomplishment. It’s not perfect, but it goes a long way towards raising the quality of financial literacy programs.”

Planet Orange’s redesign comes only months after J.P. Morgan Chase announced the cancellation of the School Savings program, an unfortunate casualty of Chase’s purchase of WAMU. The program was an 86-year-old institution created by WAMU, and provided financial education to literally hundreds of thousands of elementary school students across the country. Whether intentional or not, Planet Orange appears capable of filling the void left by this loss.

At a time when so much buzz and attention is being placed on attracting the older segment of Gen Y (ages 18 to 28), it’s refreshing to see a financial institution focus on the youngest of Gen Yers. After all, when it comes to teaching kids positive money habits, the sooner the better. The lifetime benefits of early financial education makes it well-worth the effort. Hopefully we’ll start seeing more educational initiatives of this quality geared toward this age group.

A casual lunch turns into a massive overhaul

“The single biggest thing to happen to us this year has been the rebranding of our kids savings account.”
– Roger Sundermeier,
FAB&T VP/Marketing

One winter day a few months ago, Roger Sundermeier, VP/Marketing Officer for FAB&T, was having lunch with some of his coworkers. The group was discussing things they wish they had time to do differently around the bank when the subject of the kids account came up.

For years, FAB&T’s kids’ savings account had been the “First Bucks Savings Account.” This account had a huge dollar bill (named “Buck”) for a mascot. The idea was that every time a child made a deposit, they would receive some trinket — pencil, crayons, activity sheet, etc. The problem was that branches would run out of items to give to kids, or the kids would wind up receiving the same item over and over again. How many times can getting a pencil be fun, right?

Over lunch, Sundermeier, along with FAB&T employees Larry Daniel, SVP/Director of Retail Banking, Staci Bock, and Sarah Pike, did some quick brainstorming. They soon realized they had a new financial superhero to replace FAB&T’s “Buck.” They wanted a dog. After all, dogs personify many of the bank’s values: loyalty, compassion, trust.

Cash in, Buck out

FAB&T set out for the local animal shelter to find their new spokesdog. They found a yellow lab/retriever mix that was a little more than a year old. It appeared that she had been hit by a car as she favored her back left leg. “Just spending a few minutes with her, we knew that she was the one,” Sundermeier told The Financial Brand.

When FAB&T adopted “Sheila” (now named “Cash”), the bank made a
special announcement in the media to draw attention to overcrowding in
animal shelters, especially during these difficult economic times.

“We were immediately blown away by the response to our teaser campaign.”
– Roger Sundermeier,
FAB&T VP/Marketing

The bank launched a teaser campaign, both internally and externally. “It was hilarious to listen to people trying to figure out what Cash was all about,” Sundermeier said chuckling.

“The plan was to take ‘Cash’ into schools, nursing homes and community events,” Sundermeier said. “She would reinforce the FAB&T message, as well as be a great icon for our brand.”

FAB&T partnered with the Build-A-Bear Workshop for a Valentine’s Day promotion called “Give Cash 2 the 1 U Love.” FAB&T sold plush lab dogs from Build-A-Bear Workshop — with branded FAB&T t shirts, of course — in branches. The net proceeds from the promotion were then be donated to local animal shelters. After a week of sales, FAB&T had over 240 dogs, with over $2000 dollars being donated to local shelters.

FAB&T isn’t the only financial institution to realize the iconic power of spokesdogs. Late last year, The Financial Brand wrote about USA Fed’s scrappy brand bulldog, Spike.

Cash & Crew

FAB&T has expanded the idea into a fully-blown kids marketing campaign, including a new kids savings account built around Cash and “The Crew.”

“The Crew”
Farley the Pug, Austin the Husky, Barksley the Westie, Andy the Chihuahua and
Tiffany the pink Poodle. Combined, the initials of each dog’s name spell FAB&T.

When kids open an account, they receive a plush Cash dog and a card that is stamped at each subsequent deposit. After the appropriate number of deposits, their card can be redeemed for an item. The first card is redeemable for a plush carrier tote (in either denim or pink crown). They then receive the next card in the set, and so on.

“The hope is to create a ‘Happy Meal’ type of excitement,” Sundermeier said. “Where the kids hound parents and grandparents to go to the bank.”

Cash also sends out birthday cards to kids.
FAB&T has a custom paw print stamp for Cash’s “signature.”

Taking it to the next level

FAB&T has gone so far as to organize its Customer Appreciation Events at branches around dogs. The first one, which was called “Dog Daze” was held in March at the bank’s Austin, Arkansas branch.

There was grilled hot dogs, complimentary pet grooming and pet photography. PETCO set up a tent. Radio Disney was broadcasting live. And, of course, FAB&T had mobile adoption set-up for four separate local animal shelters.

“Never would we have thought it possible that a little community-style bank with 28 branches in Arkansas would have the ability to partner with national brands such as these,” Sundermeier said.

There was a nice bonus from having a pet photographer. All the photos came back to the Austin branch, giving employees (1) a chance to call customer’s, and (2) a chance to cross-sell them once they came into the branch.

“The event exceeded even our wildest imagination!” Sundermeier exclaimed. “The police in the town had to block off streets and direct traffic because of the response!”

FAB&T plans on doing four or five more similar events this year throughout its markets.

“Our employees are excited, our customers are excited,” Sundermeier beamed. “Life is good at FAB&T!”

Tip of the Hat: To Roger Sundermeier, for his time and cooperation on this article, and to FAB&T for doing good by dogs in animal shelters. [Editor's note: I have seven dogs, three from shelters.]

The Financial Brand sat down with James Flores, head honcho of Subcat Marketing. Subcat specializes in helping financial marketers reach “sub-categories” such as kids, teens, young adult and family markets. The agency develops fully-custom youth marketing and education programs for financial institutions across the country, and also offers a turnkey program for teens called The Elements of Money^TM, a kids club called, M3 Money Club^TM, and a financial newsletter for Gen X parents called, Family Money.

What’s the business case or ROI for a youth marketing program?

It’s really a matter of long-term survival for many financial institutions, particularly credit unions, where the average age of members sits somewhere around d 47 years old.

Although youth marketing ROI must be seen through a long-term lens, there are cases where financial institutions have seen an immediate return on their efforts. This usually happens when targeting the older end of the spectrum — the 18 to 25 market.

It’s unrealistic to think you’re going to recoup marketing and education expenses for a kids or teen club within the first year. This is a slow process that must be nurtured over time. But if a company is serious about building long-term growth, this shouldn’t be an issue.

What are some vital financial lessons that kids aren’t learning these days?

I don’t see anyone helping kids and teens deal with financial peer pressure. I think this should be a standard part of any financial literacy outreach program. We’re actually developing an educational module right now to address the issue.

There was a fantastic documentary on HBO a few months ago called Kids + Money that illustrates the role money plays in the lives of young people. After I viewed it, all I could think about was the immense pressure kids and teens have to spend money on clothes and the next “cool thing.” In many instances, a teen will spend hundreds of dollars needlessly on things like purses and shoes, just so they won’t be ostracized at their school. In my opinion, a class war has overtaken the race war in many youth cliques. It doesn’t matter what ethnicity you are, but it does matter how you spend your money. I wrote about this in my blog at subcatmarketing.com.

What are the biggest mistakes financial marketers make when targeting young people?

The biggest mistake we see over and over again is talking down to younger members. Sometimes you don’t even need to say a word to talk down to them. For example, if you offer a youth section on your website, don’t lump the kids club with the teen club. Teens don’t want to be associated with kids and will be turned off by this. Instead, make sure your kids club and teen club are separate.

Another mistake we see is developing programs that are too young for their intended audience. The youth market is age aspirational, and even though they may be 14 years old, they’re already thinking about what life will be like when they’re 16. And remember, the media that these teens consume is dominated by people in their 20s. If anything, err on the side of older representation.

Another mistake we see is companies trying too hard to be cool and cutting edge. We get quite a few requests to develop Gen Y programs that are edgy and extreme. This approach was probably more relevant when Gen X were teenagers back in the 90s. Contrary to popular belief, Gen Y is not an “extreme” generation.

When should a financial institution market to parents vs. directly to kids?

Parents are extremely influential in regards to marketing financial products to young consumers. Ask anyone under 25 why they opened an account in a particular financial institution and they typically cite their parents. I constantly hear things like, “my mom opened my account,” or “my dad had an account at the bank, so I opened an account there.” Targeting parents must be at the forefront of any youth marketing initiative. A few credit card companies are savvy to this, with teen cards marketed to parents such as the Visa Buxx program and Discover’s Current card. Bank of America also does great work with reaching out to parents of college students.

As a matter of principle, we never market financial products to kids under 13 years old. For kids under 13, it should be about education. Instead, the marketing efforts should be directed toward the parents and/or grandparents. This shouldn’t pose any problems for financial institutions since it’s highly unlikely that an eight-year old is going to stop by their branch and request their own ATM card. Once the individual turns 13, however, I believe it’s appropriate to market directly to them. The parent will still be the gatekeeper, so efforts should shift to co-marketing — targeting both the tween and parent simultaneously with two separate message platforms.

How important is it to make financial services fun and engaging for kids?

Two things are necessary when dealing with the youth market: fun and humor. Although kids and teens love money, learning about financial concepts can be a bit dry. Anything you can do to engage kids is critical. This isn’t an easy task, but definitely possible. An understanding of child development really comes in handy when creating a strategy for engagement.

For instance, kids retain more information when it’s delivered through storytelling. Something we’ve done with the M3 Money Club is create a story arc with characters and exciting adventures. We weave the education and storytelling throughout the main program components: the comic strip, podcast and blog. Kids can then follow their favorite characters as they learn about money. When they read about a concept, they can then play a game that reinforces that topic.

How does the current economic meltdown affect youth programs?

As most marketing professionals know, marketing budgets are typically the first to get cut. Programs that don’t immediately contribute to the bottom line are even closer to the axe.

Financial institutions must recognize that this economic crisis has brought the topic of money front and center. Whether kids are hearing stories at school about a friend’s father who lost his job or teens are watching news reporters predict total economic collapse, exposure to the world of finance and the economy among youth is at an all time high. The current situation creates what some may call a “teachable moment.”

What’s the difference between a turn-key youth marketing program and a custom one?

I recommend a client utilize a custom program for one of two reasons: (1) they create local/regional competitive differentiation, or (2) they offer something a turnkey program doesn’t. A custom, proprietary program will cost more to develop, and many financial institutions can’t handle that, in which case the only option may be to go with a turnkey program.

My issue with the turnkey programs is that there are some out there that could actually generate more harm than good. In most cases, it’s a matter of wrong messaging or an outdated look, which will torpedo any youth marketing effort. When it comes to this audience, it has to be authentic and credible.

The youth market is a moving target. Unfortunately, most turnkey programs aren’t equipped to evolve that quickly. A few programs still use the same photos as they did five years ago. That’s a horrible strategy.

In what ways can financial institutions help moms and dads?

There is a huge opportunity in this arena. Our research has shown that parents by and large want their kids to practice better financial skills. Parents just don’t know how to do it. Financial institutions must provide parents with the tools needed to instill positive money skills in the home. They need to show parents that they’re on the same team and they both want the same thing-money-smart kids. Providing financial education is a point of differentiation between traditional financial providers (banks and credit unions) and alternative financial providers (payday lenders and check cashers).

We publish a cooperative quarterly newsletter that is targeted toward parents called Family Money. The goal of the publication is to help media-savvy parents — specifically Gen X moms — by providing relevant financial advice. It helps them raise money-smart kids and manage their household finances.

Rapid-fire, free-association questions.

Facebook? Never the same since mom and dad became your friend. Maybe Bebo instead?

SecondLife? The jury is still out, but teachers and parents are leery about this one. This gives me reason to pause.

Branches in schools? Takes a lot of work, but worth it. Just make sure it’s about education (i.e. teach to the standards) and not just marketing. Treat teachers with respect. They have a lot to do and don’t have the time you think they do to deliver your financial education. Be nice to the custodial staff. You will need them when you lock your keys in the branch office.

Podcasts? Another way to deliver financial education. Some people like them, others are ambivalent. Put it out there and let your members decide.

YouTube? Video is the future, but the future is also about content. Just don’t know if YouTube is the final content frontier. Check out Hulu.com.

Twitter? We just asked 10 teens if they knew what Twitter was. They didn’t know what we were talking about. With that said, you can follow me at twitter.com/SubcatJames.