CASE STUDY: How TC Bank Taiwan made savings books less yawn-inducing

Background

ZenithOptimedia's ethnographic research and one-to-one interviews with TC Bank customers revealed that current accounts offered a daily, but entirely transactional and ultimately meaningless, experience. Savings accounts, on the other hand, symbolised something personal and special.

For many people, the memories of receiving their first savings book provoked a sense of nostalgia. From childhood to adulthood, the savings book is a physical reminder of events that shape customers' lives, from their first job to their first car to their first child. 

Strategy

The bank wanted to create an authentic experience and engage at a deeply personal level. Despite the highly charged backstories captured within the pages of savings books, most banks make them plain and ordinary. The bank sought to transform the humble savings book into a groundbreaking media touchpoint in an otherwise established but dull category.

Execution

The brand re-imagined the TC Savings Book as an owned-media asset that would deliver brand influence at minimal costs. The bank put the design of the savings book completely into the hands of the customers. 

The bank developed a branded microsite to prompt customers to upload photos that captured important moments in their lives and then choose colours and graphics to personalise it further. Facebook helped drive traffic to the microsite and enabled people to exchange memories and comment on stories while viewing others' artwork.

To keep customers engaged throughout the process, the user experience needed to be fun, easy, fast and executed flawlessly across the two touchpoints: online and in the branch.

The bank set up DIY stations at every branch so that walk-ins could access the microsite and design their own books within minutes. Secondly, the programme required people to pick up their personalised savings book in a branch, creating an opportunity for TC Bank to engage with customers on a face-to-face level.   

Results

• The bank recorded 15 per cent growth in new savings-account customers in one month.
• Customers posted more than 12,000 personal saving-book stories on Facebook in just under three weeks.
• Consumers uploaded more than 10,000 personalised bank books to the microsite.
• The bank received more than $3 million in earned media value (the cost of the campaign was less than $1 million).
• On average, consumers spent three minutes with the brand online and a further 15 minutes in store when picking up their books.
• TC Bank has made the DIY savings book a permanent feature.
• This campaign won gold at the Festival of Media Asia, becoming the first Taiwanese entry to pick up an award at this event.