Delivering professionalism and customer service through a screen

By Craig Colgan

Bank Midwest was hunting for a way to increase awareness of its interactive teller machine services. Its tellers were ready to contribute to the project in a fun way.

The bank launched its Meet Your Video Teller campaign focused on promoting ITM services through engaging social media posts supported by web content and branch signage. A key element was the creation of drawn caricatures and then bobbleheads of its tellers. All aimed to educate customers on working with what for some is a new way to interact with their bank.

“The social campaign was designed to introduce the faces of our people ‘behind the screen’ and to educate customers on the ease of working with the video tellers at an ITM,” says Amy Radcliffe, Bank Midwest marketing manager. “Overall, the Meet Your Video Teller campaign successfully combined fun, information and impact, embodying Bank Midwest’s commitment to innovative customer engagement strategies.”

The campaign earned Bank Midwest, a $1.2 billion bank with 13 locations in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, a 2024 ABA Brand Slam Award in the social media category. Radcliffe answered our questions about the campaign:

Bobbleheads! Of bankers! Please explain and defend this insane and brilliant idea. Ha! Honestly, I had been cleaning and found an old caricature drawing of my kids and just had a light-bulb moment. I’m pretty sure no one else had ever used caricatures to showcase bankers. Or maybe they had but it was still a fun idea.

We had the staff drawn by a local artist and when we got the drawings, they just really looked like bobbleheads. And presenting each team member with a bobblehead at the end of the campaign was a perfect way to bring things full circle.

What made Bank Midwest initially focus on ITM and when did that occur? We added machines to a few existing locations in late spring/early summer 2024. We took the opportunity to introduce this service to existing ITM markets and timed it to coordinate with the new ITMs set to be installed.

Currently, all but one of our locations are equipped with an ITM machine, totaling 11 locations.

There really is no guide on how to market ITM. So can you share how your team came up with these ideas and strategies? We focused on promoting the ITM service channel through engaging social media posts supported by web content and branch signage. The social campaign was designed to introduce the faces of our people ‘behind the screen’ and to educate customers on the ease of working with the video tellers at an ITM. We utilized the caricatures of each video teller to highlight their unique individual characteristics in the creative. Additionally, we presented them as a team to showcase the service benefits of the ITM. These visual posts communicate and educate the personalized experience customers can expect when using one of Bank Midwest’s growing fleet of ITM’s.

Our four primary goals were:

• Introduce video tellers so they become familiar faces, like local branch staff.
• Educate customers on the ease of using an ITM.
• Introduce customers in new locations to ITMs and video tellers.
• Improve efficiency and drive increased usage of ITMs.

The campaign not only delivered results but was also positively received by the video tellers themselves. (And all 180 Bank Midwest employees.) ITM usage increased by 40 percent for the first three months of the campaign. Efficiency was improved by reducing staff hours in the branches by approximately 100 hours per month by closing drive-ups on Saturdays. (ITMs were available for Saturday customers.

Our ITM campaign posts as a share of all social engagement activities May through July produced impressive results. Interactions: 26 percent. Clicks: 28 percent. Shares: 21 percent. Impressions: 25 percent. And overall organic web sessions increased by 34 percent during the campaign. Additionally, we received an unexpected endorsement from our ITM business partner, signifying the impact and effectiveness of this campaign.

Overall, the Meet Your Video Teller campaign successfully combined fun, information and impact, embodying Bank Midwest’s commitment to innovative customer engagement strategies.

What about this campaign connected best with customers or potential customers? The campaign facilitated genuine connections between people and our staff. Customers not only commented and shared posts but also engaged in conversations with the team, discussing their unique likes and dislikes.

What feedback have you heard from customers? We’ve had customers who were initially nervous about using the machine feel comfortable asking questions and ultimately learning to navigate it. One 80+ year-old customer even remarked, “Wow, that wasn’t so bad.” Mission accomplished!

Anything at all you would like to add? It may not be the last time you see bobbleheads teaching people about banking from the Bank Midwest team.