Key Bank Keeps It Real, Drives Traffic to Branch Locations

This fall, Key Bank hosted “Make It Real” events in select cities, including Albany (NY), Columbus (OH) and Portland (OR). In places where people – and food trucks – gather on lunch breaks, teams of Key Bank employees in bright red t-shirts distributed coupons for free lunch with participating vendors. Key Bank assigned each location a Twitter hashtag (like #MakeItRealColumbus), and an official event page on Facebook where it assembled details and photos.

As a result, “Make It Real” was a solid brand-awareness campaign with both social and local elements. But Key Bank took it to another level with two additional strategies: charitable giving and lead generation.

For every tweet containing a campaign hashtag, Key Bank donated $1 to United Way, and for every “Make It Real” card (handed out along with the free lunch coupons) returned to a branch location, the bank donated $10. But the bank’s generosity didn’t stop with United Way. If an individual brought the card into a branch and opened a checking account with direct deposit, Key Bank made a deposit, too ($100-$150, depending on the market).

Take-away: Go out and grab the attention of potential customers and inspire them (including use of incentives) to take action.

The appropriately-named “Make It Real” campaign turned a fun, community event with qualitative brand-building elements into a business-building initiative with real (quantifiable) results. Aimed at driving traffic to branches and generating leads via a “bounty,” the effort established an interesting and trackable path from brand awareness to lead conversion.