I have been thinking of blogging about this for long time, however I will quickly jot down my thoughts

My experience with Max Bernner

I came to Oz last year, saw Max @Parramatta – long queue daily, serving chocolate or coffee in unique way .. liked the idea of chocolate bar
(i was interested to know more)
My friend (who was here for long time) mentioned one day that theres a cafe out there serving awesome straw berries dipped in chocolate will go and try … i quickly collected he mentioned about Max (interest developed further)

as a sincere Netizen i Googled about it.  Max Bernner website equally engaging and amazing on story how they started — the concept of bald man … the passion behind it ..the whole story (i havent been to shop but I discussed about it with other friends of mine in India … )

I finally went there … tried soemthing (think it was Frappe or something) didnt like it much … though liked the concept, look and feel of the shop ..big chocolate mixers, pipes and then they were also selling extended products like mugs, chocolate cards etc etc

at this stage i gave benefit of doubt to their tage line “chocolate is not just about taste”

though i didn like the taste of what i tried … i was willing to give another try to something else and did gave another try, was not a good experience in terms of taste again … they do good stuff, they create good story … I tell every friend of mine who is new to Sydney to go to that place once … and i think whosoever is in Sdyney cant miss the place … will definitely love to try it once …

What about Max Bernner and Bank

Other day – a tweet from @thebankchannel triggered this thought that is it possible to create similar story with bank branch ..can we have bank branch experience like Max, what will Bank be like if Max Bernner decided to enter Banking?? what can be extended products that you can sell in Bank branch … greeting cards? Bank Branded chocolates? …… (just thinking loud)

With branch debate still on – how can we extend this model (story and experience to banking…  a quick search on coffee shop bank landed me on this blog which mentions about Umpqua bank experiment - surf sip read shop bank (pdf) and check this Umpqua Innovation Lab (interesting stuff!!)

Think its worth a discussion … how about taking it up at  bar camp Bank anybody??

Ah! Finally I blogged after long time … loving it … thanks @thebankchannel

forrester     social media playtime is over – @jbernoff blogs on new document by @jowyang about social media marketing spend http://snipurl.com/dxx3c

Above Tweet from  Forrester grabbed my attention and it is worth reading the blog post on Groundswell Blog.  Post highlights that marketing budget for social media spending is recession proof. On blog - 

What’s driving this? As the executive summary of the report says:

These inexpensive tools can quickly get marketing messages out through interactive discussion and rapid word of mouth, and properly managed, can deliver measurable results.

My personal experience echos this – with the reduction in overall marketing and advertising budgets organizations are looking at social networking tools as “inexpensive” marketing tool. While some organizations might be able to innovate and be benefitted.  However, if your organization is here without any strategy and just dablling around then you better pay heed to the recommendations on Forrester Blog – which shouts – It’s time for serious business – SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYTIME IS OVER

You will also like to read

• 10 key lessons on social media as highlighted by Gavin
• Sean Lew’s Book Review of Groundswell 

Too much for social media and Banks… Next what is happening in Insurance sector

*Updates*

• Nice Wrap up of Ad:tech by Gavin.  I like the comprehensive presentation evaluating social media monitoring tools. 
• Laurel Papworth’s presentation on relevance of twitter in business 

On Tuesday, 10th March I visited Ad:tech Sydney (Event for Digital Marketing).  As a visitor my access was limited to the keynotes and expo, could not attend any of the panel discussions or conferences. However, good work done by official twitter moderators (Nicely consolidated by Neerav ), also available at  relevant # TAGS . Here is my summary of my experience of the event

Kodak Moment

I started day 1 with a video “winds of change, Kodak is back”  this was part of Stephen Green’s session on the  digital transformation of Kodak – It was an interesting story with confessions on how they changed  in 4 years and whatever exists at Kodak now, never existed 4 years back. Here’s the video he played -

After that i roamed around a bit at various stalls of exhibiting companies, stopped at couple of them for demo on how they are promising to solve the mysteries of social media for their clients.  Or how to build optimized websites to get more traffic and eyeballs. Seems like everybody knows SEO expect me! You come here and you would realize about the importance of having your “digital identity” and then optimizing it so that you are visible!  Everything which we love to do is also quickly happening in a parallel second or virtual world. Before I get carried away 0n virutal Vs Real let me come back to this real post in virtaul world…

Tweet Tweet

So, now I chose a place outside conference rooms and started following tweets. So, what if i could not attened the sessions, I have collected couple of relevant tweets, its worth going through them once

@servantofchaos 10 key lessons from social media

1. Don’t believe the hype
2. Use subtle branding i.e. you don’t want to appear lame
3. Social media is not free … You are putting your reputation on the line
4. Learn from other people’s mistakes
5. Be quick ..New ideas are only unique for a short time … It’s the zeitgeist baby!
6. They won’t come. You have to use social media
7. Constantly reinvent … Your social media beast develops a life of its own. Sounds like a teenager!
8. Keep path to trial simple
9. Understand how your audience uses social media
10. Be brave … Social media is not for the faint hearted

Tweets on Banking

@ Charispalmer

• @montyhamilton says a positive interaction about your brand in an online community is “advocacy we don’t have to touch” #atsyd3
• UBank did a brand recognition study and found success of impressions on facebook was a big surprise #atsyd3
• UBank measures YouTube channel page views, comments, facebook fans, twitter followers. Lense is interoperabilty with UBank site #atsyd3
• myfuturebank learnings: Monty from UBank says most important thing is to give people a feedback process and make the biz accessible #atsyd3
• UBank sees social media as an opportunity to differentiate and have conversations at arms reach says @montyhamilton #atsyd3
• UBank considers Facebook a way to target mass markets. Twitter is still early adopter phase but bank has been in it since launch #atsyd3
• “Follow their life rather than force them into your path to purchase” #atsyd3

@ Monty Hamilton

• Really enjoying this J&J session #atsyd3 #atsyd – great point “don’t create something to impress other marketers” SPOT ON!!!
• Over 1m winks sent by Acuvue @facebook app, very cool, and awesome reach figs too (correct me if wrong but) 36% of Aust popn #atsyd3 #atsyd
• “Needed to get customers to try before buy” says Mandeep as “60% who try product stay with it” (J&J Acuvue Contact Lenses) #atsyd3 #atsyd
• “Ultimately its the premium price brands that suffer” says Mandeep on why J&J could not start a price war with contact lenses #atsyd3 #atsyd
• Charis Palmer says “as UBank has a 24×7 call centre, leveraging it for Twitter servicing could be resource efficient” #atsyd #atsyd2
• Charis Palmer says “banks still think they control their brands” maybe the logo and the tagline hehe… I agree with her #atsyd #atsyd2

I would also like to thank Monty for the quick catch up after the session and also introducing me to charis Palmer..

Finally

Then I had to rush back to office for work and thus i missed the drinks party after the day 1. I planned to meet couple of new found tweet friends, however thanks to office i could not even make it on second day!! However thanks to live tweets i followed the relevant bits

Okay this time I will be blogging about Social networking feature embraced by ANZ. This is quiet unique -

1. While other banks (Raboplus and Ubank covered so far) are trying out new things with Online Banks, ANZ is experimenting with the social network around “Real” Bank (and not onedirect). 

2. It is unique because they have not just embraced social media applications to broadcast and connect with people but they have actually went ahead one step and built a network around normal savings account.  For this they have partnered with a US company called SmartyPig and launched Smartypig Australia 

3. And they are using another social networking website called Get satisfaction for customer support

4. Need not mention that there exist twitter: SmartyPigAU and Blog (though with only two posts since it was launched in December) 

So what is Smartypig?

Online Piggy bank which lets you create your profile, set your saving goal in terms of how much you want to save and in what period. Based on which Bank will deduct monthly amount and put it in your piggy. Further it lets you share your profile with your community and friends on facebook or myspace. Also, you can allow your friends / family to contribute to your goals or else you can also contribute to your friends goals. Simply put it lets you build a social network around your savings account. Finally when you reach your goal you have an option of either transferring money (along with interest) to linked savings account or get them coverted to value boost gift card that you can use with specified retailers. Check more details at About us Page of smarty pig. They say that smartypiggy is converting ‘buy now pay later’ credit card mentality to a better  guilt free  financial habit of save now spend later. 

Was at Ad:Tech Sydney – watch out this space for next post about Ad:tech.

In this post, I would like to quickly and heartily acknowledge all the blogs and publications that help me out in writing these posts – And I will be adding these useful sites / blogs as links in side bar on right. Currently it consists of  Banking Review  its sister companies and blogs , they are doing really good work of bringing relevant and focused news to the industry and that too using relevant tools!! (Follow Banking Review on Twitter). There are other broad spectrum websties and publications covering technology and trends which I will keep posting about as and when I stumble upon them.

Then there are cetain industry events – One such biggest and relevant event is hoted by FST media   Last year I got an opportunity to attend FST Media’s 3^rd annual technology and innovation – the future of banking and financial services conference it was wonderful experience which I later Blogged about. FST events are unique in the sense that they are kind of biggest platform bringing together people for finacnial and Technology sector. This year in April they are again hosting 3rd Annual Technology & Innovation – the Future of Insurance and Wealth Management. Last year my company was one of the sponsors in the event. I am looking forward to attend the event this year too. See you around there!!

By the way are you following these or any others? Feel free to drop a comment to share other relevant publications / blogs / events. They complete the ecosystem

 I came across this article in Online Banking Review (OBR) which argues that Content generation will play a greater role in website development during the next 12 months as banks strive to show their commitment to customers. This further strengthens my point on the importance of connecting to customers with a blog – other than communication it helps you in generating good content.In world wide web there are n no of ways to produce content and with the concept of social networking there are numerous way to connect with the consumer -

You Tube

Similar article in OBR mentions how Ubank who is using Youtube to launch a channel UBankMoneyBox which presents complex finanical concepts in fun way, a sample video is here explains the credit crunch in fun way  -

Facebook

 Here again U bank has taken a lead and have their presence felt on facebook, sharing youtube videos, conference / event details, marketing their schemes, Awards etc. Articles on finanical management etc etc. This also helps bank in SEO and thus increasing their chances of appearing in search queries. Also worth noticing on the facebook profile the option of contacting customer care through Skype. Then there are various RSS feeds which users can browse through.  In coming days this can possibly replace the usual News / Media link on the website. 

Twitter

Need not say ubank has its presence here too, as mentioned in facebook and youtube profile too – follow ubank on twitter.  Seeing this i searched for other banks on twitter and here are the results -

CommBank - However with no logo of bank and no activity i really doubt that its twitter profile of common wealth bank 

Westpac- Though there is a logo, but this twitter profile is password protected, so cant comment anything. Private profile make sesne if this is supposed to be network of internal employees – but then that’s what we are talking of here. 

Rabobank- Again, something fishy here, with no logo and no posts,  I am sure this isn’t Rabo bank twitter feed.  

with more and more people using these tools, it would be logical step for banks to embrace these technolgoies at least for reaching out people to broadcast messages – No wonder this would help in cutting advertising spend too. 

I would end this with another interesting article on the no of hits analysis for top Direct banking websites which argues that - ‘Young Ambition’ might sound like a cheesy pop group but is actually one of the new demographic segments that could make or break your online success’ 

Clearly UBank is taking a sort of lead in playing around with these new tools and with other banks ready to jump in, it would be interesting space to watch out in 2009. 

Few more interesting experiments in next post….

This post is a sort of reply to Greg’s comment on post on RaboPlus Blog. First of all Thanks for the comment! Really appreciate the effort he is putting in to engage in conversation with consumers. Right is it that having a ghost writer would defeat the purpose. Being authentic and candid is most important. Being a virtual bank it becomes more important to have blog as a communication channel. 

Other Rabo Blogs

He mentioned that Other GM’s from Rabo direct banks are also blogging. Did a quick check about it and here are other two blogs I could find  - 

Raboplus New Zealand – Blog is called Raboplus Blog and is differs from Australia blog in the sense that it has multiple authors – Other than GM there is a team leader from bank’s customer contact center and a freelancer. They write about their opinions aon various Money related topics. 

Robodirect Ireland – Called RaboDirect Blog is again seems to be multiple author blog. They also have podcast library there with latest blog post asking readers for the suggestions on the podcasts. 

oops! I tried adding podcast to my itunes library, somehow could not do it directly through website [Add to itunes link isnt functional on the subscription page] 

Wondering?

It is good to see that Rabo has embraced Blogs as  a part of their strategy and are using this as a tool to connect to consumers. However what i am wondering is - 

1. How are they tracking the benefits of blog? or is it that they just blogging because they are passionate about it.

2. Is it part of the overall digital marketing strategy to increase the visibility in search engine – I can think NO becuase Rabo bank didnt appear for either of the following search queries  - online bank, direct bank or virtual bank. (while other banks did appear, max ads i could see of is ING direct and now UBank keeps appearing in facebook etc)

3.  Are they also using other social media tools for marketing and communication among online community?

Embracing Web2.0?

Third question is interesting as Greg pointed in his comment to watch out Rabo Plus website in coming days for more Web2.0 features which they will be incorporating. I would be looking forward to the same in coming days. However did some ground check on what other direct banks are doing in terms of using Social media to connect and market. And I was really excited to read some of the latest reports from online publications and also real example of  leading banks playing around with various options. 

More on this in next posts ….

This post is reproduction from my other blog – Idea Factory, thought it would be fun and sensible to post it on FinFactory. For the series of interesting comments on old post, you would like to visit Original Post

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Guess The Brand?

Help me with this small exercise,

First check Following websites of the common banks in Australia – Focus more on Colors, logos etc that helps you recognize the brand

1. ANZ
2. ING Direct
3. Bank West
4. CBA
5. Westpac
6. NAB
   

Check this image

Now using your senses, new found knowledge of banks above and concepts of Brand recall / color scheme etc etc, what do you feel which of the above banks could have launced this website / Product?

Drop your answers in comments …

Please dont google or visit One direct website to find RIGHT answer .. Just say what comes to you after visiting above websites

I posted the right answer and my views  in following post What’s in the color? for the sake of completeness i am reproducing same -

————————-

What’s in the color?

Thank you all for the commenting on last post

As many have already pointed out the correct answer is ANZ

Why that post

When I first landed up on One Direct website, first thing that came to my mind was ING Direct. However i had seen there website earlier so was wondering why this new website, is this a different product or what is it, further ING Lion was nowhere to be found. Then, I took the pain of going to About us page to know that this is owned by ANZ.

It didnt impress me at all … i was wondering why they used Orange … when they have such a lovely Blue color. As some of the comments point out that it can be intentional to compete directly with ING or may be as ING Direct is known name people will immediately associate it with Direct banking, use of the word Direct further corroborates this reasoning, or this is just a coincidence.

ANZ?

So, I posted that to check if there is any relation between what colors etc communicate and Brand recall. It seems like there is some… (though its on a very small base of few comments and few mails) however none has associate the site to ANZ (barring few smart ones who took the pain of researching on one direct..however even they accept that first thing came to mind wasnt ANZ). This is deabatable as can be seen in comments too that few liked this strategy and few have voiced against it.

White Zune

In my view its only helping out ING and increasing its recall value. Some colors just stick to us. Like White Mac. So is orange for ING and this ANZ example can be like Microsoft launching white Zune just for the reason because Ipod is famous. Ridiculous!

What’s in the color?

You might argue whats in the color – Imagine this – you saw an ad of One direct somewhere…later you thought of visting website and checking it out, phew! you dont remember web address.. .only thing that stuck with you was Direct BankYou will google it … you searched Direct Bank (google query). Here ING Direct is in the top 5 links . Next thing that might have stuck with you was Orange color and chances are that you might rule out other results becuase these are not your color …. Or you might also go ahead and query Orange Direct Bank (google query) may be because Orange is important part of their strategy and they have products starting with Orange (like Orange Mortgage, Orange svings, Orange home loans etc) … It might sound far fetched example …. but it does say there is something in the color ING being stronger brand and Orange being part of their strategy is sticking around with them and not helping ANZ

Too much on color – whatever the color – good service, higher interest rate on savings and lower interest rates on loans is what we want.

——–

Hope you enjoyed it !!

Conversations

First Theses of Cluetrain manifesto says – “Markets are conversations” and organizations around the world are embracing online conversations be it behind the firewall or directly with the consumer. In my view that is the *MOST* important aspect of web2.o getting into dialogue with end consumer directly (B2C communication).  I further strongly believe that Blog is an impotant tool for such conversations.

Banker’s Blog

I did a quick search on how many bankers from top banks are blogging in australia. Till now I could only spot one such Executive blog from Greg McAweeney General Manger Raboplus  (online direct bank of Rabo bank). In hope, then i also checked on some of the direct banking websites like UBank (NAB), ING direct and One Bank (ANZ) and none of them are into direct conversation with consumers.

Wisdom of crowds in action

On this Blog Greg recently started an interesting discussion around lack of transparency in advertising of high yield online savings accounts. It is worth taking a look on the post and the comments from customers and the fact that Greg is taking the pain of replying to these comments. I see it as a perfect example of wisdom of crowds in action, I personally learnt a lot about interest rates and how the banks fool around in fine prints.

Another good thing about this blog is that it is Executive blog – not owned by some person but the the general manager so when Greg joined in October 2008 he started the conversation from where last GM left. Generally Blogs are looked upon as a personal logs and companies experimenting with web2.0 face the challenge when the project sponsor leaves. However Here it seems like that to be GM of raboplus you got to be keen on blogging … ( I am assuming that blog is not ghost written by marketing team). Good work Greg!!

Will be on lookout for more such examples of open conversations and web2.o examples in Financial industry

The Meeting

Stephen Collins, a social media strategist, active blogger and founder of acidlabs and now after meeting him i can say a good chap to know. So here he was in Sydney @ E2EF conducting a workshop and tweeting about the event. I thought it would be good to catch up with him,  wasnt too sure if he will be able to find time to catch up, however after couple of twitter DM’s and confusions about time and venue we were able to catch up for a breakfast at central. This is one thing i really like about web2.0 community people out there really believe in Collaboration and conversations, they are happy to talk and explore … *Open* in true sense of the word. At least that is my experience so far with whomsoever i have met.

Breakfast Table discussion

I had no Agenda in mind, however there were few things i wanted to talk about. But then i thought lets do the Unmeeting! with the Chief trouble maker (That’s what he calls himself) of acidlabs. And true enough he was easy to get along with friendly, open, full of ideas, knowledge and passion. Then it was general chit o chat on varioud topics around web2.0, industry and obviously TED. I will now try to reproduce some of our interesting discussion. It wasnt an interview, so I am not quoting him and its completely based on memory and understanding (Trib, feel free to correct me if I am wrong anywhere!)

Why Acid Labs? – Acid burns and lab is a place where Ideas are worked on, acid labs is a place for burning ideas

Buddha – on the visiting card, presentation and other brand communications – Buddha signifies knowledge and personally he find Buddha’s knowledge to be most solid

Social media / E2.0 in Financial sector -  This is one topic, I was interested in from the point of view of my current involvement with the financial sector. And his views only echoed with what is generally true that most of the experiments are happening behind the firewall for internal collaboration and communications. B2C E2.0 is still in its early stages, there are couple of top companies experimeting with various ideas. Economic slowdown has effected that too, for focus is again on the core and non sexy things. Ideas presented to Financial companies for various projects however for them these are great innovations, but not for immediate investment, may be two years down the line!! Check Web2.0 Reality check by David Backley from Westpac at E2EF (Link). E2.0 Long way to go!

TED - I have always found TED talks to be very inspiring and engaging. Recently in Feb Stephen was at TED conference and he will be giving a keynote on his TED experience at hrfutures conference on 26th Feb. So it was worth talking about his experience there to listen to the great speakers in person. According to him it was awesome. Aura of the conference in itself was so very inspiring. Just imagine you are surrounded by people from varied backgrounds, all totally unrelated and yet everybody beleives in one tenet – Everything is possible, and can be achieved. People full of passion, enthusiasm and ready to take on any challenge forget about current credit crisis! It was super! way above his expectations For all you TED fans in India TED is coming to India this November at Infosys campus and later in march TED speeches will be available in many other languages. (Will be talking more about this on Idea Factory)

So much for the Wonderful breakfast. Thanks Stephen!