Last week Google announced their long awaited NFC-trial for mobile payments. On the face of it, many perceive that Google’s play is an attempt to cannibalize the lucrative payments market, but if that was the case, why has Google not taken a share of interchange fees from Citi and Mastercard? In addition, Google is supplying contactless point-of-sale units [...]
Tags: advertising, apple, banking, citibank, FIRSTDATA, Google Wallet, marketing, mastercard, Mobile, NFC, payments
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5 Comments | 
June 6th, 2011
The perfect Ad is something advertisers dream about. Some “mAd” men, go their entire career searching for it, others who are creatively gifted, come up with home runs, Gold Lions and accolades time and time again. Mad men have come to believe that if you can get the perfect mix of emotion, message, imagery, nuance and impact – that you can practically sell anything. There are Ad’s that make us laugh, make us cry, sit in awe, or clutch our hand to our mouth in disbelief. Messages that have the ability to inspire, change our opinions and most importantly get us to part with our hard earned cash in exchange for a little piece of that same magic that was embodied in that message.
There’s only one problem – those messages … aren’t getting through any more.
Tags: Above-the-line, Ad Placement, advertising, Below-the-line, branding, Campaign, Death of Advertising, Failing metrics, Mad Men, Media buy
Continue Reading | 2 Comments | September 7th, 2010
With the massive activity in the mobile Ad space arena at the moment, I’m amazed that there is so little focus on this by Bank marketing teams. It shows a level of ignorance that is staggering.
But it’s just yet more evidence that the shift from broadcast advertising, to well targeted, well positioned, personalized offers is a massive challenge for bank marketing departments.
Whatever the case – mobile, targeted offer management is a core skill for banks today – one that is generally completely absent from bank marketing departments. How do you know if as a bank you are ready for mobile? If you are asking your agency to run a campaign from their own list or database or you are trying to retrofit your currently monthly campaign onto SMS, that’s a bad sign…
Tags: advertising, Android, apple, CRM, google, iAd, iPhone, m-ad, m-banking, marketing, os4, point-of-impact, sms, social media, Viral
Continue Reading | 7 Comments | June 16th, 2010
There is a debate that has been raging in Advertising quarters for almost a decade now – which is better Digital Media or Traditional Advertising. The fact that this question is being asked at all shows that most advertisers and institutions don’t get consumer behavior in the interconnected world. Considering that agencies are in advertising, you’d think they would get it right? Considering the declining ROI in traditional marketing approaches, you’d think marketing staffers would get it too right?
Tags: advertising, Billboard, Customer Experience, digital, direct mail, marketing, Media, permission, Radio, Strategy, traditional, TVC
Continue Reading | 9 Comments | May 5th, 2010
There are some massive changes occurring in the banking space today, but none so dramatic as what is happening in marketing and advertising.
Direct mail offerings have been declining rapidly since 2006. In 2009, less direct mail was sent by banks than in the year 2000. Direct mail has declined 32 per cent since 2007 alone. Direct mail is not unique – TV, Radio, Newspaper, Print are all declining in total Ad spend and in effectiveness. So what will marketing look like in 5-10 years time?
These changes require a complete rethink of the structure of the marketing department, and a complete new set of tools. This is the biggest fundamental change to the marketing department of the bank…well ever. I’m not surprised that quite a few of the banks I’m talking to are not sure how to make this transition, but that doesn’t make it any less likely.
Tags: Ad spend, advertising, decline, department, direct mail, location-based messaging, marketing, point-of-impact, Strategy, structure, TVC
Continue Reading | 11 Comments | February 7th, 2010
