My Marketing Trends Kelly Kressner, Marketing Specialist

Like many marketing and advertising professionals, I am a huge fan of the AMC drama, Mad Men. For those of you who don’t follow the show, it takes place at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency in the 1960’s. To kick off Season 3, show sponsor Eight O’Clock coffee is using a 21st century marketing twist for this 60’s drama complete with an avatar-making site, MadMenYourself.com, an online trivia game and e-cards.

My Mad Men Avatar

At MadMenYourself.com, fans of the show are invited to create their own ad man or woman and then share it with others through their social media networks. Since I’d never created an avatar before, I decided to visit the site and give it a try. Guess what? It was actually a lot of fun!

I loved being more involved with one of my favorite shows and sharing my excitement for the Season 3 premiere with others on my social media networks.

So, how is this relevant to financial services marketing? Well, experimenting with this made me wonder, how can our clients generate this same kind of excitement and engagement level with their customers/members? While it certainly is more of a challenge, it’s not impossible!

Here are few of my ideas so far and I would love to get your input on more!

• In conjunction with a microsite for your kids or teen program, what about having younger members create avatars as part of their personal profiles? It could really get their creative wheels spinning!
• If you have a really great offer via email, include a Forward to a Friend or Share with Your Network link. That way your customers/members can feel empowered to pass along the good deals.
• Offer a contest. One of my new favorites is the Verity Credit Union search for a mommy blogger. What a fun way to get moms involved with your brand!

How has your financial institution tried to truly engage and deepen the relationship with customers/members?