Posted by Lisa Hochgraf
I've been having trouble articulating an idea that came into my head during FORUM Symposium early this month in Indianapolis. Maybe you can help.
The idea is basically that entertainment in marketing brings people in and makes it possible to effectively tell people the "boring" stuff they need to know.
Here's an example of what I'm driving at: Larissa Walkiw made Young & Free Alberta's blog so fun that young people got charged up about it--and, ultimately, signed up for a lot of free checking accounts from Common Wealth Credit Union, Lloydminster, Alberta. My guess is they didn't come for the checking accounts initially. They came to be entertained and then happened to sign up.
And then yesterday I (belatedly) read Melissa Troiano's "Banks ... one step ahead" post on the Filene blog (Thanks, Mary, for pointing this one out!). The post discussed how widely known personal finance adviser Suze Orman is now FDIC's paid spokesperson. There were lots of good comments on the post, but a key takeaway for me was that the FDIC wasn't afraid to get people's attention now--entertaining them with bronzed and blonde Suze Orman--and follow up with the details later.
Ron's "Game-Based Banking" post on this blog yesterday suggests that gaming can bring people in and form connections with them. Again, fun first, product sales later.
So is "fun first, detailed explanations later" a new mantra for communicating with members and potential members? How would you phrase this mantra better? Do you have additional examples of entertainment leading the way for good information about financial products and services?
