In 2014 TD made a change to the way it could sign up new accounts that made staff 2,800% more successful in acquiring new customers. The bank introduced a new technology that allowed mobile branch staff to open new accounts end to end through a tablet. Then it used that technology to talk to Canadians about banking in a new environment.
Rather than the traditional method of driving customers into a branch to then engage with a TD advisor and learn about the bank’s offerings, the brand built a mall tour that allowed it to speak to customers on their terms. When customers liked what they heard, they could accept the offer and sign up for a new account on the spot. In addition to being 29 times more successful than branch staff at signing new accounts, this tour engaged more than 100,000 Canadians and facilitated mobile staff cross-selling incremental products at a 36% higher rate than traditional channels. This tour overachieved expectations by any measure, validating TD’s decision to put a large focus on digital and find more ways to become relevant to consumers in both the live and digital world.
The strategy behind the promotion was simple: take an existing successful banking promotion, highlight it in an eye-popping and fun way and take it to consumers in an environment where they are most receptive.
The promotion: the TD Samsung offer. Any potential new customer who opened a new chequing account would receive a free Samsung tablet and a chance to win a 55-inch Samsung Smart TV.
The location: shopping malls. After a detailed research analysis of potential locations, from festivals and sporting events to shopping malls and grocery stores, it was decided that there was only one location that offered the perfect mix of potential customer volume and willingness to engage with the brand – shopping malls. The opportunity was amplified because most shopping malls are often crowded, offering little chance to escape the hustle and bustle. This created a new challenge – with so many people and retail opportunities, TD needed to break through the clutter and create an environment for the mobile branch staff to operate.
Understanding that consumers love the concept of free, and tablets had an extremely high perceived value, the solution was simple: make the offer the hero and surround it with an iconic, comfortable TD environment. A gigantic five-foot Samsung Galaxy Tablet replica with a working digital screen was placed beside an equally tall media wall with a mounted Samsung 55-inch HD TV with signage telling shoppers they could win one of their own. This captured mall-goers’ attention as the area was clearly TD-branded, but featured a technological design not normally associated with the bank. An open lounge design, optimized for the shopping mall environment and emphasizing comfort and approachability invited consumers to escape the hectic mall setting and use these complimentary interactive devices. On-site branch staff were in the perfect environment to explain TD’s offerings and then enable consumers to take home the tablet they were playing with for free if they used it to sign up for an account.
The TD mall tour visited 10 locations, reaching 112,120 Canadians with 34,830 in-depth conversations with a TD representative. One in every 16.3 in-depth conversations ended up with a new account acquisition on-site, and one in every six in-depth conversations led to a customer request for a conversation with a branch representative. Moreover, while banks usually open one to two new chequing accounts in branches daily, “The New to Bank Tour” averaged more than 29 new accounts per day. Naturally, this made TD’s mobile staff more successful than their retail advisors, generating 123% more revenue than their in-branch colleagues. And cross-selling, a bank’s ultimate defense against attrition and offers from competitors, was 36% higher than any TD channel.