Want to win a Mini Cooper with your own personally designed roof,
and receive it live on TV? Well, you have a chance to do just that if
you design your own payment card with Banco Sabadell. To ensure 2008
kicks off with a real bang, Banco Sabadell, one of Spain´s largest
banking groups, has teamed up with global technology provider,
Serverside Group, to launch Instantcard, an exciting new card
customisation service (to see the card design site for yourself, go to
www.creatutarjeta.com).
The new service, which went live on 4 February, is initially being
offered across three of Banco Sabadell´s five brands: Sabadell
Atlantico, its core banking arm, BancoHerrero, its northern Spain
brand, and Solbank, a brand targeting non-Spanish people living in
Spain. Future plans include rolling it out across ActivoBank and Banco
Urquijo, its direct and private banking arms respectively. The card
customisation service is being promoted in five languages: Spanish,
Catalan, English, German and French.
Banco Sabadell has taken an extremely proactive, multi-channel
approach to its marketing, and is promoting the new card design
service to the Spanish public in quite some style. Among other things,
it is:
-- Sponsoring a TV talent show on commercial channel, Cuatro,
called ´Tienes Talento´. There will be additional product
placement across other TV programmes on Cuatro. Tienes Talento
was chosen because there is a clear link between the talent
and creativity on show in the programme and the creativity and
imagination required to design your own card
-- Running an online card design competition (technology provided
by Serverside), the winners of which will go through to a
grand final that will be broadcast live on the final Tienes
Talento TV show. The competition will comprise user-generated
voting and the overall winner will receive a Mini Cooper with
the winning card design on the roof
-- Providing images created by renowned graphic designers, Mario
Eskenazi and Philip Stanton
-- Running an integrated online advertising, direct mail,
segmented email, outdoor and in-branch marketing campaign
-- Using a selection of Serverside-created online marketing
tools, including ShareMyDesign, a viral ´send-a-friend´ tool,
and TalkAboutMe, an interactive mini version of the AllAboutMe
card designer that can be embedded within home pages and on
blogs
In the weeks before the consumer launch, Banco Sabadell also ran a
two-step campaign targeting its employees. In the first instance, a
direct mail teaser was sent to more than 10,000 employees comprising a
photo frame in which they were invited to "capture their most
important moment". A week later, they received an email inviting them
to capture the same moment, but this time on a card. For Banco
Sabadell, this campaign was of key strategic importance, as its
employees were effectively ´ambassadors´ of the new product and would
influence its success.
Instantcard is being offered across Banco Sabadell´s entire
MasterCard debit and credit card portfolio. Where personal images are
used, they will be screened by Serverside´s image checking facility
based in New Zealand.
Manuel Tresanchez, Head of Payment Cards, Banco Sabadell,
commented:
"We´re really excited about Instantcard and our comprehensive
marketing campaign is hopefully conveying this excitement to the
people of Spain. It´s the first banking product we´ve offered that
will enable us to establish an ´emotional bond´ with our customers. By
letting people design their own cards, we are engaging them and
linking our brand to their interests. It is a unique product in Spain
and is perfectly aligned with our corporate values of proximity to the
client."
Nick Stammers, Sales Director, Serverside Group, added:
"This is a fantastic and highly innovative marketing campaign, and
we have no doubts whatsoever that it will be a huge success. Card
customisation campaigns work best when they are marketed through
multiple channels, and this is a perfect example. We´re particularly
excited by its Web 2.0 elements, for example, the user-generated
voting within the online card design competition. Enabling customers
to actively participate in your product and brand is a great way to
engage and retain them for the long term."
About Serverside
Founded in 2003, Serverside Group is the global technology leader
in digital card design and a provider of innovative software solutions
for issuers, personalisation bureaus and card manufacturers. The
company´s two flagship products are AllAboutMe, a web-based
application that allows cardholders to design their own unique payment
card online, and Virtual Portfolio, a web-based management tool
enabling issuers to rapidly launch card campaigns of any size, adjust
them in real time and print cards on demand. Serverside currently has
60 signed clients in 20 countries covering more than 200 card programs
globally. They include: ING, Permanent TSB, ANZ, BMW, KBC, Advanta,
Fortis, Eurobank, First National Bank Omaha and Heritage Building
Society.
Serverside Group is headquartered in London and has offices in
Taipei, New York, Chicago and Auckland. The company has strategic
alliances with Visa and Datacard Group. For more information and to
see a live card demonstration, visit www.serversidegroup.com.
