Progressive Insurance Taps Twitter and Instagram with #BestDayEver

Once more, Progressive Insurance leverages the immense popularity of its fictional character Flo, the Progressive girl.  Over the years, Flo has built a community of 3.7 million americans via its dedicated page on facebook, an engaged audience 85 times bigger than Progressive's own facebook community.
 
This time, the campaign which aims to generate a significant amount of digital buzz and drive the volume of requests for free insurance quotes, taps into twitter and instragram, and focuses on photography and music.

American Express Leverages Twitter Brilliantly (Again) with 'Sync'

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

I am a big fan of American Express which is unarguably the top financial services firm worldwide in the social media space.  
 
Their social strategy is totally aligned with their business strategy and they are totally focused on finding innovative, intuitive, ways to tap into the likes of facebook or twitter in order to generate business and drive value for their card holders, their smaller merchants and their corporate partners.
  
Earlier this month, and a few months after a similar integratiion with Foursquare, American Express launched 'Twitter Sync', another brilliant initiative where Amex removes as much friction as possible, and successfully drives a tremendous amount of activity on twitter but more more importantly a huge volume of real business transactions and 'savings'.

Two Thai Banks are Leading in APAC with 136k Followers [Twitter Top 10]

Since March 2009, my team have been tracking and benchmarking how theglobal financial services industry is using social media to engage with theircustomers and their markets.  We now track over 1,700 twitter accounts in78 countries.
 
The levels of activity, engagement and 'success' vary tremendously from oneregion to the other.  The EMEA region is still lagging behind North America,and it doesn't seem as keen to engage in conversations as the more and more active LATAM and APAC regions.
  
So which countries are leading the twitter revolution in Asia Pacific?  I invite you to check out our video Top10.

Unum's Head of Strategic Marketing on Social Media & Ask Unum [INTERVIEW]

On 21st March 2012, I will be contributing to my fourth marketforce event in the UK, this time the whole event is dedicated to social media in financial services.
 
 
I am aiming to record a series of video interviews with most of my fellow speakers from the financial services industry.
 
I invite you to watch my second interview with the Head of Strategic Marketing at Unum UK.

Banesco is the Leading Bank in LATAM with 100k Followers [Twitter Top 10]

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

Since March 2009, my team have been tracking and benchmarking how theglobal financial services industry is using social media to engage with theircustomers and their markets.  We now track over 1,700 twitter accounts in78 countries.
 
The levels of activity, engagement and 'success' vary tremendously from oneregion to the other.  The EMEA region is still lagging behind North America,and it doesn't seem as keen to engage in conversations as the more and more active LATAM and APAC regions.
  
So which countries are leading the way on twitter in Latin America?  I invite you to check out our video Top10.

Axa Offre 50,000€ pour Promouvoir le Lancement de son API Bancaire

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

Aujourd'hui, et quelques mois après la Fédération Nationale du Crédit Agricole, Axa Banque vient d'annoncer le lancement de sa propre API bancaire et son 'app store' associé.  Avec cette initiative, les institutions bancaires françaises confirment leur positionnement à la pointe de l'innovation digitale.
  
Quel niveau de buzz autour de ce lancement va générer le concours et les 50,000€ à la clé pour l'heureux gagnant?  Comment cette initiative se distingue-t-elle du 'CA Store'?

Je vous invite à visionner mes commentaires en video. 

Axa Offers 50,000€ to Support the Launch of its Retail Banking API

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

Today, and a couple of months after Fédération Nationale du Crédit Agricole, Axa Banque announced the launch of its own banking API and 'app store'.  With this initiative, the French financial institutions demonstrate once more their leading position at the forefront of digital innovation.
 
How much buzz and traction will Axa Banque generate with this contest?  How does this initiative compare with Crédit Agricole's?

I invite you to watch my initial video comments. 

Will Twitter Be More Than a Glorified RSS Feed to the Federal Reserve?

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

Last week, the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve System in the US launched an official twitter account.  It took the verified account just a couple of days to get over 14,000 followers.
 
It complements its social media presence which now also includes an ipad app, a youtube channel and a number of RSS feeds.

This is a good signal and another validation from the highly regulated financial services industry.  It is important to embrace social media and connect with your audience (employees, customers, investors, media/press/bloggers) on services like facebook or twitter.
  
If PR and corporate communications could be a good and 'safe' place to start, you shouldn't stop there.  Demonstrate your understanding of those new communication channels, and prove your willingness to listen actively and engage in conversations.
 
How proactive will the Federal Reserve be on twitter?  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I have captured my initial comments on video.

Sociéte Générale Invite ses Clients à Beta Tester son Service PFM

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

Le 15 mars, la Société Générale a annoncé le lancement imminent de leur outils de gestion de budget intégré à la banque en ligne et ainsi bientôt disponible aux trois millions d'utilisateurs.
 
 
Ce communiqué de presse insiste sur la co-création et le crowdsourcing, une dimension de plus en plus importante pour la SG qui a lancé au cours des 18 derniers mois des initiatives telles l''Appli' et sa 9ème fonctionalité crowdsourcée ou encore la capture de 20,000 feedbacks clients en agence via ipad.
 
Avec cette approche, la Société Générale arrivera t-elle à créer un service de budget innovant et intuitif et à s'imposer sur ce sujet en France?

Umpqua Bank's CEO is Waiting for Your Call [Transparency]

REDIRECTING TO VISIBLEBANKING.COM

When was the last time you wrote to the CEO of your bank?  Probably never.  Even if you did, it is unlikely you received a response directly from The man.  But anyway, even in an ideal world, do you think it would be the best use of his time?
 
A small group of Senior Executives from the banking industry started in the last three years to make themselves more approachable and engage with their customers and their employees on social media channels via a blog or a personal twitter account.
 
Now as a customer of Umpqua Bank, you can call the CEO and speak with him from the bank's very own branch network.  So, would this initiative make you open an account with Umpqua Bank or switch from your current bank?