We have been watching with interest how Apple is (and, more importantly, is not) using card marketing best practices to sell its newest product. It offers a good case study in how a beloved brand can use its clout to break from a traditional approach.
Brands on Instagram face a pretty big challenge: how to create content that achieves the level of authenticity platform users expect. One approach is to leverage the audiences of popular content creators, as in these recent posts published in partnership with top FIs, including Amex, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, U.S. Bank and Visa.
Whether grabbing a soda at the vending machine, paying for a rapid pickup order from within the Panera app or making a point of purchase transaction at a local Staples store, the default card is the easiest – and most often chosen – payment method. But issuers aren’t targeting this issue.
Savvy 21st century consumers are pretty “hip to” most marketing tactics. As we’re all well aware, they don’t want to feel “marketed to.” Instead, companies want to engage with consumers; they want existing customers and prospects to experience their brands. For many, including financial services brands, music is the perfect vehicle to make that happen.
Apple Pay, and other apps like it, could eventually signal a change in how consumers think about and use payment products. And to promote this cutting edge, possibly game changing way to pay, Amex decides to roll out old ad clips. Why evoke these iconic images for such a new piece of technology?
If you want to talk about timeliness and relevance in bank marketing, you’re going to have to include an anecdote about how Wells Fargo organized pop-up stores in San Francisco to promote the launch of Apple Pay.