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Mar 17
2011
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HUMOR ON VIDEO HELPS BANK LIGHTEN UP IMAGEPosted by Steve Cocheo in Social Media Banks New Frontier   |
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Texas bank pushes out message on YouTube and Tweetdeck
Trio of bandits plot an unauthorized withdrawal, in spot being filmed for Worthington National Bank online video. The actual spot, produced in black and white as a silent movie, can be seen at the link at the end of the main article.
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By Steve Cocheo, executive editor
Most banks would just as soon not have a virus, real or technological, in their offices. But Worthington National Bank launched a series of online videos two years ago that management hoped would “go viral.”
We came across these videos a week ago, all of them done with good humor, because we follow $175.6 million-assets Worthington on Twitter, along with several hundred other banks that have ventured into social media. (We’ll follow your official bank Twitter postings, too, if you follow us, at www.twitter.com/ABABankingJourn). The bank tweeted a quick word reminding followers about its online videos. It used Tweetdeck’s Deck.ly linking feature. Clicking on the tweet takes the viewer straight to Tweetdeck, where one of the videos is embedded with a longer version of the message than would fit in a standard Twitter field.
That led us to the rest of the videos. Actually, they aren’t just funny—they’re a hoot!
Out of the five spots, two garnered huge numbers.
With more than 49,000 hits thus far is the spot dubbed “Glass Eye.” It portrays the old joke about the banker who tells a basically hopeless customer that he’ll make him a loan, against all policy, if he can tell which eye is his glass eye.
A video with more than 27,000 hits is “Worthington’s Remote Capture.” In that spot a businessman’s anger steadily builds as he finds office after office locked, the employee away. He finally calls one of his finance people, who, it turns out, is doing his job via laptop and remote deposit capture on a beach somewhere. Another is having a massage, while loading checks into the remote reader. You get the idea.
Starring in both of those videos is Matthew Steward, Worthington’s president and chief lending officer. The other videos mostly feature staffers and a customer or two.
Among the other spots is one done in black-and-white silent movie style, and set in the days of the cowboys. A trio of bandits attempt to rob the bank, but wind up opening accounts instead because they find the bankers so friendly.
The bank hoped to both promote its services to its existing business prospect base and also to establish a more consumer-friendly image by lightening up its outreach a bit. While the other spots haven’t reached the numbers the remote capture and glass eye ones did, the campaign overall has made its mark.
The videos, produced by J.O. Design, the bank’s Fort Worth advertising agency, were very affordable, according to Jennifer Henderson, president. “The cost of production was fairly inexpensive and posting them on the internet is free,” she explained. Besides direct viewings, the bank also gained notoriety in area publications for the unusual campaign. Typically each spot cost $2,000-$2,500 to produce, using video professionals.
Henderson says more videos are coming later this year, the pitches still to be worked out.
Most banks would just as soon not have a virus, real or technological, in their offices. But Worthington National Bank launched a series of online videos two years ago that management hoped would “go viral.”
We came across these videos a week ago, all of them done with good humor, because we follow $175.6 million-assets Worthington on Twitter, along with several hundred other banks that have ventured into social media. (We’ll follow your official bank Twitter postings, too, if you follow us, at www.twitter.com/ABABankingJourn). The bank tweeted a quick word reminding followers about its online videos. It used Tweetdeck’s Deck.ly linking feature. Clicking on the tweet takes the viewer straight to Tweetdeck, where one of the videos is embedded with a longer version of the message than would fit in a standard Twitter field.
That led us to the rest of the videos. Actually, they aren’t just funny—they’re a hoot!
Out of the five spots, two garnered huge numbers.
With more than 49,000 hits thus far is the spot dubbed “Glass Eye.” It portrays the old joke about the banker who tells a basically hopeless customer that he’ll make him a loan, against all policy, if he can tell which eye is his glass eye.
A video with more than 27,000 hits is “Worthington’s Remote Capture.” In that spot a businessman’s anger steadily builds as he finds office after office locked, the employee away. He finally calls one of his finance people, who, it turns out, is doing his job via laptop and remote deposit capture on a beach somewhere. Another is having a massage, while loading checks into the remote reader. You get the idea.
Starring in both of those videos is Matthew Steward, Worthington’s president and chief lending officer. The other videos mostly feature staffers and a customer or two.
Among the other spots is one done in black-and-white silent movie style, and set in the days of the cowboys. A trio of bandits attempt to rob the bank, but wind up opening accounts instead because they find the bankers so friendly.
The bank hoped to both promote its services to its existing business prospect base and also to establish a more consumer-friendly image by lightening up its outreach a bit. While the other spots haven’t reached the numbers the remote capture and glass eye ones did, the campaign overall has made its mark.
The videos, produced by J.O. Design, the bank’s Fort Worth advertising agency, were very affordable, according to Jennifer Henderson, president. “The cost of production was fairly inexpensive and posting them on the internet is free,” she explained. Besides direct viewings, the bank also gained notoriety in area publications for the unusual campaign. Typically each spot cost $2,000-$2,500 to produce, using video professionals.
Henderson says more videos are coming later this year, the pitches still to be worked out.
Trio of bandits plot an unauthorized withdrawal, in spot being filmed for Worthington National Bank online video. The actual spot, produced in black and white as a silent movie, can be seen at the link at the end of the main article.
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