ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Retail and Marketing

Banking on Surprise and Delight

April 29, 2016
Reading Time: 3 mins read

By Sharon Klocek-Ibbotson

Looking for some unconventional marketing ideas you can take, twist or tweak?

Over the last year I have been fascinated by the possibilities of applying the concept of surprise and delight to banking. The idea is not new to the service industry. For years, hotels have been trying out ways of bringing unexpected moments of happiness to their customers. There’s no reason why this approach should be limited to the hospitality industry. I see so much potential for any financial institution to custom brand and engage in this way.

In February, for example, Salem Five, a Massachusetts bank with $3.8 billion in assets, ran its own surprise and delight campaign involving cookies. To mark the grand opening of a new branch in a brand new market, Salem Five sent out a street team of “banker bakers” to deliver Cookie-Grams. Sound frivolous? This simple effort put the bank’s name and new location into the hands of 3,300 potential customers within a one-mile radius of the new branch. How frivolous does it sound now?

 

“We followed the grand opening event with a unique direct mail piece that is sort of spring loaded,” said Chris Payne, Creative Director at Salem Five. “When the outer envelope is opened, a 3D cube pops out that doubles as a piggy bank. Once filled with coins, recipients brought it into the branch and we doubled it.” For distribution, the bank opened the radius up to three miles from the branch.

To complement this effort, the bank bought up all of the available mobile display ad inventory (2 million impressions), dominated the displays at the local commuter train station for four weeks, and used a roving billboard truck.

As a result, “We had excellent attendance at our grand opening weekend event, plenty of social media chatter, and the hero product, our Star Money Market, has seen very good results,” Payne says. “It’s become a $15 million dollar store in just a few months.”

The power of a surprise and delight approach lies in its potential for creativity. The important thing is to align your ideas with your brand promise—and to keep them simple.

Let’s talk actionable ideas.

Empower your employees to surprise customers with happy moments. This may sound scary to many of you, because it is often hard to trust employees at the branch level to stay in brand and on goal. But it can be done simply by giving them the freedom to choose within rules, examples and approved suggestions collected from all branches.

In-Branch Examples:

  • Go out of the way to hold the door open for a customer
  • Walk customers out to car with an umbrella—or brush the pollen/snow off their car
  • Offer a free giveaway that fits an immediate need (towel/rain, car shade/hot, etc.)

Out of Branch Examples:

Deploy staff for one hour once a week to:

  • Get in line at the register and buy someone a cup of coffee, pack of gum, ice cream
  • Put staff talents to work: organizing flash mobs, beautifying a public space, sewing or knot-tying toys for children or pets, distributing local area treats to customers (cider, doughnuts, apples, roasted corn)

Brand Guided Examples:

  • Friendly brand – Give away a free home BBQ party.
  • Sleek urban brand – Give free rides in a Tesla or car that fits your brand of cool (partner up with car dealers in area).
  • Fun loving business brand – Set-up a bounce house or DJ for adult workers at a large business or in a central location to jump or dance at lunch (co-promote with bounce house or DJ as a co-sales effort).
  • Helper brand – Ask staff to spend 15 min a week looking for people with heavy loads (exiting stores) and offer to carry items to car.
  • Problem Solving Brand – Rent or make a puzzle container escape room and host family and young adult events with prizes donated or purchased for solving puzzle containers (offer 5 free hints).

More ideas? Many more, but the best ideas come from a community. What are your ideas and how can you use them to gain loyalty and brand recognition?

Sharon Klocek-Ibbotson is the Content Strategy & Development Leader at Kiosk & Display Company. Email: mailto:[email protected]

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: Bank marketingBrandingBusiness developmentCustomer engagement
ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

How to Hyper-Segment Your Customer Communications without Losing Control

Marketing Money Podcast: The 30-month plan to future-proof bank marketing

Retail and Marketing
July 11, 2025

How aligning marketing with executive and business-line goals can make a massive impact.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Make Sense of Mountains of Data

Three myths about AI in banking

Technology
July 3, 2025

Common myths and misperceptions might confuse about what to expect and misdirect investment and efforts.

Chair’s View: Celebrating a century of giving back

Chair’s View: Celebrating a century of giving back

Community Banking
July 1, 2025

Not only do we celebrate the 150th anniversary of our organization, we also commemorate an important milestone for the ABA Foundation.

Fighting fraud on the frontline

Fighting fraud on the frontline

Compliance and Risk
June 30, 2025

Customer inquiries and complaints are important tools for detecting scams, but structural barriers in the bank may prevent them from being fully utilized.

Marketing Money Podcast: You don’t need a bigger budget — you need a better plan

Retail and Marketing
June 27, 2025

What matters most in bank marketing. And understanding how to deal with common obstacles.

Proposed rule would require verification system for Treasury checks

Podcast: Inside ABA’s new Treasury Check Verification System API

ABA Banking Journal Podcast
June 25, 2025

ABA's new Treasury Check Verification System platform is live. ABA anti-fraud experts Paul Benda and Hannah Ibberson discuss the platform and how banks can put it to use.

NEWSBYTES

HUD reverses Biden-era policies on appraisal review

July 11, 2025

ABA donates to Texas flood relief efforts, urges bankers to contribute

July 10, 2025

Mortgage rates rise

July 10, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

Navigating Disruption in Ag Lending – Why Tariffs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Navigating Disruption in Ag Lending – Why Tariffs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

July 1, 2025
AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025

PODCASTS

Breaking down the bank-related provisions in the big budget bill

July 10, 2025

Podcast: Inside ABA’s new Treasury Check Verification System API

June 25, 2025

Podcast: Staying close to clients amid tariff-driven volatility

June 18, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.