TD Bank is putting the “personal” back into personal banking with its integrated “Bank Human, Again” marketing campaign.
“The name of the campaign is really a call to action to our customers or prospects,” says TD Bank’s CMO Vinoo Vijay. “We’re pretty committed to an exceptional customer-centric model, and we think that big and small things matter. We think we do a better job of delivering those big and small things, so we’re calling it out.”
“America’s most convenient bank” teamed up with advertising agency Tierney to weave the humanistic feel throughout various channels, including television, print, radio, digital, and microsites.
“Consumers are in every channel. We have to find a way to be in every channel,” Vijay says. “We have to find a way to be the place where consumers will take in the information we’re trying to get across as best as we can.”
While all marketing channels have their own role to play, Vijay notes that TD Bank’s six TV commercials serve as the key fabric in the integrated patchwork quilt, particularly when it comes to luring potential customers in-store. “The TV gets people interested,” Vijay says. “As they get closer to our stores, we have other things that we communicate through to expound on those points.”
When aiming to deliver a top-notch campaign, Vijay says clarity and relatable stories are critical elements.
“Are you very clear on the core reason why someone should use you? So that you know whatever you market, if [consumers] get it, they get exactly the point you want to [make]?” Vijay asks in regards to clarity. “The second part of good marketing is: Are you telling that narrative in a way that people can literally feel it? That’s where we spent a lot of time: making sure that we were able to break through the clutter in a way that our consumers, or our prospective consumers, can literally feel what it’s like to bank at TD Bank.”
The “Bank Human, Again” campaign aims to resonate both in store and online with TD Bank’s East Coast. Regarding the in-store aspect of the campaign, Vijay says that all TD Bank locations will have an LCD screen that will display various images of customers providing testimonials about why they’re TD Bank customers.
On the digital side of the campaign spectrum, Vijay says TD Bank also produced banner ads to deliver personal, thus potentially more effective, messages to the consumer.
“One of the banners we have reads the clock on the computer and says… ‘It’s 8 o’clock in the morning. Our bank is open.’ In New York most banks aren’t open,” Vijay says. “We’re open earlier, we’re open later, [and] it allows us to present that in a very clean way [and] in a very relevant way to the customer who’s seeing the banner.”
TD Bank also links the face-to-face aspect of its branches within its social channels.
“We took our associates who do Twitter for us…we photographed them, we videotaped them, and we presented them on our Twitter page, as well as on YouTube, so our consumers aren’t just talking to a faceless identity,” Vijay says. “It’s a person just like them that they can recognize and see.”
TD Bank admits that no bank is perfect and says mistakes are part of the human experience. “On our ‘Bank Human, Again’ site, there’s line that says part of being human is you don’t get things right every time. Our commitment is to keep trying and getting it right the next time,” Vijay says. “We do get a lot of customer commentary on our Twitter site, as well as on our Facebook page, and we respond. The best way to do it is to listen to the customer and then respond to it. That’s what we try to do.”
While TD Bank does have mobile banking capabilities, the organization decided not to feature a mobile component in the integrated “Bank Human, Again” campaign. TD Bank also chose to omit email as a campaign channel. “Our campaign point is not about not being able to use technology. It’s about the fact that it shouldn’t be the only option,” Vijay says. “You shouldn’t take it out and say you can’t talk to a human.”
The campaign is expected to run until June, and Vijay says consumers will see upcoming developments that model TD Bank’s pledge to deliver a personal experience both in-store and online. For example, Vijay says that TD Bank has filmed each of its New York store managers and bank locations and intends to upload the segments to TD Bank’s microsite, YouTube channel, and Facebook page.
“We’re really allowing [consumers], when they search through Google Places or Google Search, to see not just information…, but also really get a video narrative from the store manager themselves, as well as a description of the location that the store is in, that’s more visual, easier to understand, and easier to see.”
Vijay says TD Bank also intends to incorporate Pinterest and Instagram into the marketing campaign.
