CenterStage: Wells Fargo First Consumer-Generated Marketing Program

Today I have received an email from Ed Terpening, VP Social Media at Wells Fargo, to let me know that Wells Fargo are launching "Be Center Stage in the Rose Parade", their first Consumer-Generated marketing campaign.

Wells Fargo innovate again: they are the first large financial institution to join that type of contest. I have already expressed my admiration for Wells Fargo (cf my post Wells Fargo 2.0), but again well done to Ed and his team!

Buzz and WOM
Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo, and his teams are not only good at launching innovative services or marketing campaigns, but they also know how to generate buzz online.

Earlier today, Ed contacted the key bloggers in the industry: I invite you to check the posts from William Azaroff, Jim Bruene (I look forward to meeting Jim at Finovate 2007 in NYC next week) and Colin Henderson (just to name a few)

Sample video

VB Interview #1 - Fergus Hampton, CEO of Millward Brown Precis (adtech London 07)

Before executing a Web 2.0 project, it is important to clarify your objectives. What is your goal? Does it really make sens to launch a blog, a social network, or an island in Second Life?

adtech London 07: FirstChoice's 2wentysworld.co.uk

The first session I attented was entitled Online Communities as a Marketing Tool.
It was about FirstChoice and its social networking platform, 2wentysworld.co.uk.

At the end of the session, I had a good chat with Paul Clark, Product Manager at FirstChoice, and Jack Fairhall, CEO of Kwiqq.com, who I plan to interview soon.

I always welcome initiatives in the social networking space, and I would like to see more banks follow Fortis steps with their Network for European Entrepreneurs, Join2Grow (Catherine will be sharing her experience in Web 2.0 and User Generated Content tomorrow afternoon)

A few advice and remarks
* Before launching a new social network, make sure it is the right thing to do for your bank.
What do you want to achieve? Would a blog be more relevant? Are the people you are targeting already using other social networks such as Facebook or MySpace? If so, why would they spend time on another platform?

* No need to reinvent the wheel, if possible leverage an existing platform.
People are used to comprehensive and intuitite interfaces with the likes of Facebook or MySpace. It could be risky to offer them a far inferior service. Try to identify companies which provide a white label offer based on their robust platform.

* With the help of your web agency, identify and prioritize the list of key features you want to offer.
Distringuish the nice to have from the must have. For instance, it is critical to provide an advanced member search feature.

* Launching a new platform is not difficult, the real challenges are first to grow your member base and then to engage your members.
You want your members to use your platform as often as possible, post some User Generater Content, and recommend the service to their contacts. Think about useful content and value added service, think about ways to reward your most active members, your brand ambassadors...

ad:tech - Digital Marketing Conference in London

A couple of weeks ago Catherine Ossemerct, who launched Join2Grow.biz - Fortis social network for European Entrepreneurs -, informed me that she will be coming to London in late September to share her experience in social networking at the ad:tech conference.

Web 2.0
I am glad that nowadays most companies show interest in the trendy Web 2.0. Just check the number of speakers and the large range of industries covered.
They want to better understand what it is and see if, and how, they could use it. User-generated content seem to be the way forward, but bad comments from angry customers are always seen as a high risk of major brand damage. Especially in the regulated world of Banking and Financial Services.

Web 2.0 is not a technology, but a range of tools to urge people to express themselves (blogging, social networking, podcasts, videos, rss feeds...). As Chris Larsen from Prosper said in one of his interviews, web 2.0 is all about "giving the power to people". It is all about user-generated content.

ad:tech, London 2007
I registered as a member of the Press. My goal is to meet the key speakers and delegates involved in web 2.0 projects, especially in the banking space. I plan to shoot short video interviews "on the spot".

On that occasion, I will interview Catherine and her colleague Jean-Paul, Join2Grow's webmaster, to find out more about Join2Grow: Fortis goals and expectations, the most recent stats and the results since its launch in February 2007.

The Key workshops I am planning to attend:
* Blogging: Blogging French Style - Buzz your Products and Brand
* Marketing: Experiential Marketing - Interlinking and Amplyifing Digital Investment, 
* Online communities & social networking: Social Networking & Community Sites, Online Communities as a Marketing Tool - A Case Study: First Choice Holidays
* Podcasts: Podcasting: Why you should be doing it and how you can do it better!
* Virtual worlds & Second Life: Virtual Worlds - What Value can they bring beyond PR & Market Research?
* Web 2.0: Monitoring Consumer Conversations Online, Researching and Creating Web 2.0 Experiences, Analytics & Metrics for Web 2.0, Social Search - Tips & Tricks

The Key speakers I would like to meet and interview:
* Nasser Batley, Head of Internet and New Media, Global Banking, Dresdner Kleinwort
* Elizabeth Chambers, Chief Marketing Officer, Barclaycard 
* Eric Clemenceau, VP Advertising, Joost
* Cynthia Crossley, Director, UK Search Business, Online Services Group, Microsoft Ltd
* James Fabricant, Director of Entertainment and Head of Video, Europe, MySpace.com
* Alison Fennah, Executive Director, EIAA (European Interactive Advertising Association)
* Kay Hoffmann, Head of Global Advertising and Innovations, Vodafone Group Services Ltd
* José Luis Iribarren, e-Relationship Marketing Manager, ibm.com Europe
* Rebecca Jennings, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
* Justin Kirby, CEO, DMC and co-founder, Viral & Buzz Marketing Association
* Patrik Oqvist, EMEA Marketing Director - Hotels.com, Expedia Inc.
* Jill Orr, UK Managing Director, CNET Networks UK
* Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels, Merchant & Private Banking, Fortis
* Jay Stevens, VP Operations EMEA, MySpace
* Bill Tancer, General Manager of Global Research, Hitwise
* Dominic Tillson, Senior UK Sales Manager, Bebo
* Martin Verdon-Roe, Head of UK Sales, TripAdvisor
* Karin von Abrams, Senior Analyst, eMarketer

If you plan to attend as a delegate, exhibitor or speaker and you want to share your interest or expertise in web 2.0, please do not hesitate to send me an email (cm_langlois[AT]yahoo[DOT]co[DOT]uk) to make sure we meet during the show.

Stats on Join2Grow - Phase 1

Last week, I had a good chat with Catherine, the Join2Grow project owner at Fortis.

If you want to find out more about Fortis initiative in the social networking space, I invite you to check Catherine's presentation at the recent Emerce Insight Banking event.

What's next for HSBC yourpointofview.com?

Yesterday, I had a very good conversation with Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels at Fortis. Catherine successfully launched Join2Grow.biz, the online community for Entrepreneurs.

During ou conversation, Catherine told me that she was inspired by yourpointofview.com, a website launched by HSBC back in October 2005 (the advertising agency was JWT).









If you traveled from London Heathrow in the last two years, you probably noticed the clever HSBC ads:




This was an excellent initiative from HSBC. The global scale and the budget of the advertising campaign made that marketing effort exceptional. The call to action (visit a micro-site) was quite uncommon too.

Engaging people is always a smart move, and this campaign was a perfect opportunity for HSBC to:
* communicate on their global presence
* demonstrate their understanding of the local markets
* communicate a positive image of the company (Corporate Responsibility): your comments matter to them and they are actively involved in good causes such as saving the Earth.
* promote their service: they display banners randomly (cf left handside). They could improve their landing pages. Many times I felt lost on a main page, even when I was invited to download the Social Responsibility Report 2005.


Please find below a few comments and suggestions.

Even though there is not much activity from HSBC, it looks like members are still reacting to old topics and posting comments.

There are four main sections: Topic of the week, Polls & Data, Commentary and eCards. You can also find a few links to the various parts of the HSBC Group, watch all the Ads, Email a Friend, and give your feedback.

Not a social network
It is not a social network, and with this site HSBC didn't create an online community: there is no community section, no "your profile"/"your account" section, you can't browse the member database, you can't see your list of posts and comments, it is not possible to rate a post or find out who the most active member or best contributor is...

I am surprised that they chose not to add such a section. It is an efficient and easy way to do some profiling, identify evangelists and sneezers, reach smaller groups, and market your services in a cost effective way.

Limited web 2.0 features
Yourpointofview.com it is a kind of limited blogging platform. It is not a social network, there is no video, no rss feeds and no tagging.

Key remarks 
* Customer journey: watch out the landing pages! You don't want your members to get lost!
* The navigation is not intuitive. They should provide more statistics on the topics and polls (date, volume of responses), and improve the display of responses and comments.
* Search doesn't work?
* Refresh your assets! Logos, banners...
* Email a friend is a good feature and it helps to spread the word. But opening outlook is outdated, it doesn't look automated, and it is not easily trackable. I would create a form, ask for a few contact details such as the email address and name of the recipient, and automatically populate my php database.

Topic of the week
There are only 17 topics, whereas HSBC launched the site in October 2005.
You always need to manage expectations: if you have limited resources allocated to a project, why would you set a demanding frequence for updates? Fresh content and regular posts is critical if you want to drive traffic to your blog and keep your members curious and engaged.

Despite heavily promoting their current topic of the week (which week?), Global Warming, on the homepage, there are only four responses and no comments. And two responses are not even relevant: "Bakster, you know i don't speak spanish!!!!!!" and "Stop illegal logging please!".

There is no date. They don't display the total nb of responses and only four responses are displayed at per page. There is no way to quickly identify the most engaging and relevant responses because the number of comments are not displayed either.

For instance, how was I supposed to know that "Do you worry about internet fraud?" generated so much interest among the members? I found 68 responses...
 
Polls and data
The most recent poll open was in April 2007, the others are usually from the end of 2006...
You can display the results by country: it is a nice feature, but it could be disappointing or difficult to use because of a potentially small number of respondents (or no respondent at all). They could display the number of respondents and comments.

Commentary
There are only 11 key topics. The content is generated by a team of editors. The members can react and share their comments.
HSBC should leverage more the Polls and Data figures and create more dynamic pages ("how the world voted" in Is a can of tomato soup or an unmade bed really art? is static)
What is their editorial policy? They could ask the members for their favourite topics.

ecards
Why would I send yourpointofview ecards? You need to urge me to send one of your ecards!
And is it the right time to push for HSBC products and services?


How bright is the future for yourpointofview.com?
It looks like there is not much activity on the website... I wonder what HSBC strategy is for yourpointofview.com:
* do they plan to spend more money and take the website to the next level (create an online community, engage their members and leverage web 2.0 technologies such as rss feeds or tagging)?
* today, it looks like they don't allocate any more resources to the website...

The key challenge is not to create a platform, but build and engage your community. Why would I visit this site on regular basis? What can I find on the platform? How useful is the content to me?
And the key question is what is your goal? Create online communities and leverage the trendy web 2.0 technologies is ok but what banks want to achieve? Which segment or group do they target?

Michael Udell - Creator’s Comments:
“Launched in October 2005, yourpointofview.com had been in formulation since the early part of the year; it changed form and structure but always stayed true to HSBC’s objectives.“
“After a number of brainstorms focusing on possible content and functionality we realized that the potential of the site was huge, we just had to remain focused. There was the risk of creating a global dating Web site, connecting people with similar points of view across a range of topics, but that wasn’t our task.“
“To develop an engaging platform that illustrates different points of view, we focused on the topics brought to life in the initial TV and print campaigns (modern art, cloning, wind farms, haute couture and gorillas) and attempted to understand how people reacted to them.“

ING's "Pick your financial advisors" blog

ING is one of the most dynamic and innovative European banks in terms of web 2.0 and buzz/viral marketing. They have a Dutch "mini-state" on Second Life, they recently launched moveoutmoveup.com a viral marketing site with its own profile on YouTube...

On regular basis, I check the ING Asia/Pacific's blog initiated by Jacques Kamp, CEO ING Asia/Pacific. A couple of weeks ago, I found out about their excellent initiative in India, the Pick Your Financial Advisor blog.

I am always very pleased to see a leading bank innovating and utilizing web 2.0 features. Even if the new platform or service is not perfect. Recently, I reviewed the phase 2 of Join2Grow.biz, the European Network for Entrepreneur launched by another innovative bank in the Benelux, Fortis Bank.

My goal is to share my comments and my suggestions to improve the service and better engage their members. The customer experience is key: nowadays, in the web 2.0 era, people want more control. Before launching a new platform, companies should aim to create and build a community. Then, they need to make sure they engage their members and urge them to post some value added content on regular basis. Companies must focus mainly on providing a comprehensive and intuitive platform, and let their members produce the content.

But most banks refrain from implementing web 2.0 technologies because of potential brand damage. They are scared of user-generated content. But an aggressive comment or complain on your blog is not a problem, as long as you respond to it!

PickURAdvisor.com is a sort of blogging platform, not a social network. It is a good initiative, I like the idea of being able to choose your advisor, know a bit more of her/his background and put a face on the advisor, and see some activities and responsiveness from her/him.

As a potential client, it should definitely urge me to use the service and get in touch with the most suitable advisor. Moreover, I have a good feeling about ING which demonstrate they want to develop a good long-term relationship with me.

But how am I supposed to choose among the advisors? How do I get to use this service if ING don't promote it on its website? What if the interface is not intuitive? How comfortable with the service should I be if I find some inappropriate content or other visitors/members personal contact numbers?...

This is a good example of potentially damaging user-generated content. The good news is that it is easily addressable, with a moderator who constantly monitor the blog.
 
Please find below my comments and my suggestions.

Interface - main menu
FIRST COMPANY TO FEATURE ITS INSURANCE ADVISORS...
It links to the media section of ING's website. You are lost, and there is no link to the original press release...
Is this link targeted to potential clients, potential employees or investors?

BASICS OF LIFE INSURANCE
I think the Font used is too small, and not suited to older people.
There are no hyperlinks on the pages and at the end there is no call to action. For instance, on page 13, I was expecting to find a link to the "Lifemaker application" info page on their website.

It is an interactive book. Why not, but it is not ideal in terms of user experience, and it could have been more interactive. As best practice, I invite you to check "the Virtual Forest" section of first direct interactive.

DOWNLOAD THIS WALLPAPER
Why would I do that? Moreover, it looks like the picture is not displayed on the website... I would be curious to find out a) the reasons why they decided to add that option... b) how many times this wallpaper has been downloaded!

GET TAX FREE INCOME ON RETIREMENT
It is merely a link to the website...

Interface - poor navigability
The interface is not intuitive and a bit messy: a lot of info or features are below the fold, the home button is at the bottom of the page... The user experience is critical if you want to drive traffic to your service, and urge your members to login frequently, be more active and contribute.
* A fair proportion of "communty blogs" are useless: you can only see the standard "Please enter your message here". Also, it is easy to duplicate your message by mistake... Before submitting the post, they should launch a script which controls the body of the message.
* Browsing the communty blogs is not user friendly, and it takes for ever to find a message which is relevant to you.
   
One of the key misses is the absence of categories or taggs. Tagging is the base of pretty much all the web 2.0 websites and communities. It is a very efficient way to find all the relevant info about a specific topic, share that info between members and urge them to contribute.

Registration & User Profile
Early in the registration process, they ask you to choose my advisor. But how are you supposed to choose your prefered advisor at that stage?

* Add testimonial: it is good to urge your members to leave a testimonial. But here, it looks like there is only one online! Does it mean that: no one ever left a testimonial? They received many testimonials but they were that bad? They receive many testimonials, but they don't bother checking and publishing them?
* Blog rating: this is an interesting feature. Now, I feel like I am in control. But am I rating each post? Or the whole private blog with my personal advisor? What is the impact of my vote? There is no point sending my feedback if no action is taken.
* Reminders: it is a basic reminder/alarm service. I couldn't find the list of reminders on my personal homepage.
* Face-to-Face meeting: when you click on the link, another page appear saying that you will be contacted shortly. That is it!

The Advisor profiles
* The way advisors introduce themselves is diversed but there is no consistency.
Is the goal of the blog to recruit more advisors OR to develop warmer, more personal, relationships with clients? As a potential client, do I really want to hear about "growth potential"? Nope.
* I was surprised to find some personal email addresses?
* I would challenge the value of displaying personal photos. Moreover, most of the time the advisors forgot to add a description. There is no checking: "Upload family photo and enter a caption".
* They introduce their personal background.

Fine, but I need to better understand what their approach is and find out about their key skills which could help me as a client. I need to understand how successful and popular my advisor is: it would be benefitial to have access to the nb of community blogs, private blogs, face 2 face meetings, and blog ratings by advisor.
 
No control? It means a higher risk of brand damage
No "moderator"? Visitors promote pharmacy, viagra, ringtones, porn...
It looks like the advisors themselves don't check their community blogs!

It does not communicate a positive image of the company. A visitor may well think: "OK it is a good service, but ING don't care. They don't even read the content of the posts..."


No promotion on ING Vysya Life Insurance website?
I briefly browsed the ING V.L.I. website. I may have missed them, but I couldn't find any references or links to pickuradvisor.com.

When companies launch such an innovative service they should: a) be proud, b) communicate and send press releases to early adopters and sneezers, c) promote the new service on their website.

Stats - 31 July 07
* 6 cities & 27 advisors: Bangalore (5), Chennai (5), Delhi (5), Hyderabad (4), Mumbai (4) and Pune (4).
* It looks like there are just 490 posts for over 20 advisors since the launch. 

Terms and conditions
I rarely go trough all the T&Cs, but this time I wanted to find out more about ING's policy in terms of control and moderation on the blog.

Messages
This site hosts message boards, and chat services for both public and private forums. The Users may please note that any information that is disclosed in public forums becomes public information. Users should exercise caution when deciding to disclose their personal information on such forums.
Fair enough, but what if the advisors are asking for those contact details in the community blogs... Should they do it? On many occasions, I found some personal contact details in public posts.
 
Editing
IVL reserves the right to edit/delete the content contributed by Users in its blog forums, if the same in the opinion of IVL is against law, morality and IVL’s Business Principles.
Cf my "No control?" section...

Wesabe makes the web into a banking platform

If you are not familiar with the trendy Personal Finance space, Wesabe is its most innovative and high profile startup.

A couple of months ago, I wrote an article on Personal Finance: Personal finance: the internet banking 2.0 killer app? I haven't changed my mind, and I still believe Wesabe is one of the best examples of web 2.0, "social networking"/online community and user generated content.

I agree with my colleague, and fellow blogger, James Gardner who said in his excellent post A challenge to Wesabe that he was impressed with the way Wesabe innovate and communicate: "Wesabe are marvellous at letting everyone know when they are doing something new, so hat-tip to them".

I am passionate about online visibility, buzz marketing and word-and-mouth. I would like to congratulate Debbie Pfeifer for her enthusiasm, her videos and her emails.
Debbie, thanks for contacting me prior every new press release!

The title of my post comes from an interesting article by Marc Hedlund, published yesterday on O'Reilly Radar: Making the web into a banking platform (whether they like it or not).

New features
Wesabe recently launched a couple of innovative features:
* a REST API that allows anyone to get their bank or credit card data in XML, Excel, CSV, or a bunch of standard financial formats.
* an OPEN SOURCE FIREFOX EXTENSION that allows anyone to automatically extract data from their bank every night, and upload it to Wesabe, regardless of whether their bank provides automatic download or not.
* IMAGE CAPTURE that allows anyone to easily capture screen images of ecommerce transactions and file them for later reference

Well done Marc and Jason. Keep up the good work!

Other articles of interest
* Wesabe, Billeo Add Image Capture: Is it the Next Must-Have Online Banking Feature? - 25 July 07
* The Wesabe Firefox Uploader - 25 July 07
* One more thing…. Browser Snapshot and file attachments - 25 July 07
* Your bank has a REST API now (shhh! — don’t tell them) - 12 July 07
 
Firefox Uploader: Introduction Screencast
Excellent screencast Debbie. You posted it on YouTube two days ago (24 July 07), and 2,589 people watched it already.

Please check all the Wesabe videos available on YouTube.

first direct interactive

firstdirect interactive: video review on Visible Banking
In February/March 2007, fd launched their fd interactive platform which goal is to enhance the way they communicate with their clients; they want to create a community.

It is an excellent initiative, but even though they use some web 2.0 features such as video & audio podcasts and a RSS feed, the content of the site is still not user generated.

Please find below my video review of the platform.



first direct launched in 1989. It rapidly became the most recommended bank in the uk. It is a direct bank which belongs to the HSBC Group. It was the very first bank in the uk "to open" 24/7.
 
first direct's history of innovations
first direct (fd) is one of the most innovative banks in the UK. They were the first bank to launch a text banking service and they even tried a 3G/UMTS video banking service back in October 2006.

* October 1989 - launched as UK's first telephone bank
* May 1999 - launched the UK's first text banking service
* November 1999 - launched internet banking
* July 2001 - launched its offset mortgage
* April 2004 - launched internet banking plus, aggregation service
* August 2006 - launched webchat service
* October 2006 - tested video banking service with 3
* February 2007 - launched their fd interactive plaftorm


first direct interactive: 7 main categories
There are 7 main sections, from fd podcasts to fd decide.
Some sections cross reference each other such as fd energy & fd virtual forest which both direct to fd podcasts.


I was surprised by how much exposure fd give to their interactive service on their homepage. Based on my experience in online sales at Lloyds TSB, product visibility is critical. Indeed, the homepage, the logon and the logoff pages are the most valuable non-restricted areas of the website to drive sales. first direct allocate up to two tiles to promote its interactive service.

fd podcasts
To date (July 2007), they uploaded 12 podcasts between 28/08/06 and 04/06/07.


* 4 audio podcasts were produced by the Financial Times
* 2 video podcasts

* It is an average of only 1 podcast per month. Unfortunately, you can't leave a comment nor rate the podcasts. You can't see how many people listened or downloaded them.
* Like on YouTube, I would love to be able to recommend the podcasts to a friend. It lacks of "community features".

fd ask
This is a regular FAQ service. There are 4 sections:
* changes to internet banking
* charging information
* mortgages
* behind the scenes

* I don't see the need for flash here. It is simply a list of FAQ with answers. There is usually no call to action, it is simply informative.
* Please note that mortgages is the only product with a dedicated category (and check fd decide!).
* It is just an anecdote, but it is not up-to-date. In the "changes to internet banking" section, there is still a question entitled "why can't I access internet banking with Safari". Whereas fd are proud to advertise on the homepage their new compatibility with Safari...

fd clarity
Providing a few video interviews of satisfied customers is a good idea. I would rather listen to someone I can trust (someone like me or a wellknown expert) than visit a purely "brochureware" website.

 
But how am I supposed to choose from all the friendly faces? The most good looking man or woman?... They should at least add a title or give more information when your cursor is on the pictures: profile, product holding, customer since X years, switcher, credit cards customer?
I selected Jennifer, a first direct customer for 8 years...

* In the text only version of fd interactive, you have access to the list of testimonials per topic (personal loans, credit cards, mortgages, high interest, credit cards, account service, mortgages, firstdirectory, customer services and current account)
* I doubt there is no script: if you listen closely to Jennifer, you will hear "in terms of them not being a high street bank, that's not an issue"...

fd virtual forest
cf my video review.
It is a clever way to communicate a positive image of the company and urge their customers to register to internet banking and their e-statements service.
Online, most sales are coming from the internet banking customers...

fd magic bus
cf my video review.




fd energy
cf my video review.



 
fd decide
One of the most interesting services on fd interactive. It is a kind of "deep dive" approach.

Mortgages are traditionally products which are complex, it is a lot of money and a significant commitment for customers. They usually want to talk to a professional. But more and more banks are providing at least a partial online application process. In their search for value, and as part of their integrated channels strategy, banks want to convert more and more customers online.

Qo is a kind of virtual assistant/advisor or advanced product selector which guides the customers: it identifies the 2 most suitable products, it guides you to the right pages on the website and it provides the right telephone numbers.

After the first question (remortgaging or new mortgage), it is a 6 step process. Qo asks you a set of fairly generic questions. During the process, it gives you some info and advice.
 
Well done first direct. It is another very interesting experiment, even tough I didn't find it that useful. It merely lists the allegedly two most suitable products, and it directs you to the mortgages category page.
You still need to better understand the products, and I wouldn't start the online application process before speaking with an expert.

I can only assume what first direct goal was with this service. I would love to find out:
* How many people start the fd decide process?
* Of those, how many answer all the questions?
* What was the uplift in terms of start of online application or volume of calls to a dedicated number?
* What is the next level for fd decide?

Key stats about first direct (July 2007)
* first direct has 1.2 million customers
* 885,000 of them use internet banking
* 390,000 customers use SMS text message banking.
* 43% of first direct's sales are via e-channels
* 80% of customer contact with first direct is electronic
 
Find more about firstdirect.

TV ad for BBL eBanking in Belgium

Please find below a TV ad for BBL eBanking service in Belgium (in French).

They promote the availability of the service (24/7/365), the security and the comfort of internet banking as well as the benefits of e-statements.