In the cluttered North American marketplace of conventionally rational banking communications, TD has as its overarching brand purpose to make banking comfortable for people, delivering this through many customer-centric service innovations, including longer hours. Although this approach had served the brand well, other financial institutions had begun to encroach on this space with increasingly emotive, warm and human communications that had led to North Americans ultimately seeing all banks as more or less the same. Given the crucial importance of non-customers for future business growth, clearly something had to be done.
The objectives of the campaign were to increase North American TD brand awareness and consideration; differentiate TD from other banks; and deepen TD’s emotional connection with customers and increase positive brand sentiment.
TD gave regular people the opportunity to provide comfort on a scale they never thought possible with TD “#MakeTodayMatter.” The brand surprised people with the TD Comfort Card, a preloaded debit card worth at least $30,000, and gave them 24 hours to provide comfort in the most memorable way possible within their own communities. All the activity happened in November 2014 across North America. TD came armed with volunteers to help make these ideas happen to their fullest, ultimately encouraging everyone to do what they can to give back to their community.
To kick this off, local heroes with incredible unrealized ideas were needed. The team launched a Google Insight Survey, started conversations through social channels, engaged with customers on the street and asked employees to identify customers who were giving a lot to their communities. Mock focus groups were created to identify compelling stories that could make a difference in the community and could also be an inspiration to others to think about what they also could do to “MakeTodayMatter.” These were the people who were surprised one morning, over 24 days in November, to make their idea a reality.
The team documented everything it did. Each day photo albums of what had happened were posted on Facebook and Twitter, and then five longer-form videos were created at the end of November – one that showcased the breadth of all the activity and four that allowed people to see a few stories in more detail. These videos were posted on YouTube and a microsite.
Immediately following the campaign, TD maintained its leadership amongst financial institutions at 29% on Google Brand Arc, while other financial institutions declined (RBC dropped two points to 23% and Scotia dipped four points to 19%). This was a significant increase in positive sentiment versus the previous year. Additionally, positive and above-norm key diagnostics were recorded on Brand Tracker.
When prompted, over half of customers (51% Canada, 63% U.S.) felt the initiative was authentic, while both non-customers and customers indicated an improved sentiment and likelihood to consider/increase business when made aware of the initiative and video. Consumer videos generated close to 300 million impressions. The “Hero” video garnered just under 3.5 million views in the first 72 hours, while all videos have netted more than 5 million views across North America.