Collective Vigilance

Great new start-up using crowd sourcing to find those nasty hidden surprises in your bills. I imagine it's quite a challenge for the team to get the platform set up and running, especially for international roll-outs across different banking systems, but some potential for real value-add to end users here.

http://www.billguard.com/

Now this is a service - Ticketfree

An awesome utility idea that i would so use - thanks Springwise

More than 41 million speeding tickets are issued to drivers in the United States each year, according to TrafficTicketSecrets.com. With an average cost of USD 150 each, that amounts to more than USD 6 billion lost annually by US consumers. Therein lies the motivation behind Ticketfree, a site that ensures its customers will “never pay a speeding ticket, red light ticket, photo radar ticket or traffic violation again.”

Canadian Ticketfree operates on a simple membership plan whereby an annual fee covers the costs of any tickets members get over the course of that year. A membership fee of USD 169 covers all speeding tickets for a year, up to a maximum of USD 600; for USD 299, red-light and photo-radar tickets are covered as well, up to a cap of USD 900; and a USD 449 fee buys coverage for all of the above plus parking and equipment tickets too, up to a maximum total of USD 1,200. Upon receiving a qualifying ticket, members simply visit the Ticketfree site and enter the details; the company will then pay the associated fine and send the member a confirmation email. Not covered by Ticketfree are DUI and other violations resulting from dangerous behaviour, the company says.

Ticketing is on the rise, Ticketfree notes, so a little peace of mind could go a long way for many frequent drivers. Currently, however, the company covers only those within the United States and Canada; one to emulate in other parts of the ticket-prone and lead-footed world...? (Related: Fare dodgers take Paris Métro for a ride with insurance pots against fines.)

Website:www.ticketfree.org
Contact: general@ticketfree.ca

Spotted by: Michael Henr

The Check-out of the Future: Fewer Humans, More Phones [video]

Older 'future video' and article from NCR via Fast Company. Even thought it's nearly a year old, i still love signs to a future of RFID/NFC, internet of things...

National Cash Register is one of those grand old American companies that, come the digital revolution, might have gone the way of the rotary phone. Instead, with a trimmed down name (now NCR), and a ramped up R&D operation, the company is transforming the way we handle our money--or its digital equivalent.
We visited NCR’s "Innovation Center," an expansive high-rise display space filled with next-gen ATMs, kiosks, and self-service systems that will let you do everything from check into a hotel (and find your way to your room), to burn a movie (and redeem the old ones you no longer want.)

We were most taken with the possibilities of using our cellphones to conduct business in all sorts of intriguing new ways. We got the company to demonstrate a few cutting edge applications that may soon appear in a bank or hotel near you.

Universal Platforms for Virtual Goods and Social Currency

Thanks Mobile Behaviour for this on Viximo's interesting offering for virtual economies

Social currency and virtual goods have kept online gamers locked in their basements for years. Then Facebook introduced us to the virtual gift, and digital birthday cakes became badges of honor. Now game dynamics are becoming an increasingly popular way to encourage behavior online and on mobile, turning life into one big game.

A new startup called Viximo is looking to help smaller social sites build their own virtual goods platforms. Their turnkey solution includes an embeddable gift store, showcase and microtransaction system.

"Our virtual goods solution is designed to provide social networks with a powerful solution they can grow with, yet spend only a week integrating," said Brian Balfour Founder and VP of Product Marketing at Viximo. "This allows web publishers to focus on their core business--engaging their audience--while we provide their users with targeted and merchandised virtual goods through a well vetted and integrated system."

Viximo's solution supports various types of virtual currencies including cash, reward, mixed, or dual currency systems, and aggregates the best payment methods including one click credit card purchasing, PayPal, mobile, and CPA offers.

Techcrunch points out that Viximo’s ‘universal giftbox’ option, which allows for a gift given on one site to also appear on another site, could be both confusing and ugly. This is a good point, but it would be great to see some standardization across networks, not just for virtual goods but for all the gaming elements we're seeing built into social networks and media sites.

Thought Starter:

With the proliferation of “leaderboards” – the hot new SNS accessory that quantify site activity (see Foursquare, Fashism, Hypemachine, Learnvest…)—there’s an opportunity to create a points exchange. So just like you can use your frequent flier miles on partner airlines, you could redeem currencies on partner sites. Or how about a platform that aggregates social currencies and lets you redeem them for branded rewards?

Who's Innovating in 2009? Finovate Preview

Thanks Netbanker for this preview of some of the year's financial innovators

By Jim Bruene on September 1, 2009 6:18 PM | Comments (3)

I've participated in dozens of online banking and technology conferences over the years, first as a banker, then as an analyst, and now as the host. Each time, I try to walk away with not only specific action items, but with overall themes that will drive product development over the next few years.

With 32 new products and services being unveiled next month at our Finovate Conference (see note 1) and with planning season just around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to review the themes taking shape this fall:

• Control: More and more tools are being invented to help consumers and small businesses take better control of their finances, both on the credit and deposit side. The tools vary from very focused tools to manage health care expenses or 401(k) allocations, to broad tools that manage the big picture. This trend is expected to continue well into the next decade.
• Mobility: Most simple financial management tasks, such as checking balances, authorizing purchases, and so on will move to mobile devices. Another huge trend that will play out over the next 20 years.
• Peer-to-peer: You can't really cut out the middleman entirely in financial services; a trusted third-party is needed to authenticate both parties. However, the third-party may not always be a traditional financial institution.
• Safety & security: This one never goes out of style. But more so than usual, consumers are seeking safe havens for their savings and investments. And they expect more from their financial service providers. It will be a long time before risk-taking reaches levels seen much of the past 10 years.
• Segmentation (online): For the most part, online banking has been a one-size fits all service, since it came on the scene in the mid- to -late 1990s. That's not good enough going forward. There will be online, and mobile, services tailored for distinct segments. Initial efforts rolling out this year target youth markets, small- and micro-businesses, and savvy investors among others.

Guide to FINOVATE Companies
The following 30 companies (plus two more in stealth mode) will show their latest and greatest innovations in 7-minute demos at Finovate on Sep. 29 in NYC. Here's how our presenting companies describe themselves.

Backbase
Backbase enables organizations to leverage their understanding of valuable customer data into highly-personalized eBusiness Portals and Applications. Branding, content, applications, and tools can be targeted to customers using profile-based personalization. Guidance and expertise can be proactively offered based upon specific customer needs. Customers can even be empowered to tailor their own user experience based upon their individual preferences.

BancVue/First ROI
These successful sister companies provide innovative checking accounts backed by dynamic marketing, data driven consulting and powerful software to community banks and credit unions. BancVue and FIRST ROI aim to change the world of banking by launching a whole new product delivery model for consumer deposit accounts and community financial institutions.

Billeo
Billeo gives consumers a fast, easy and intelligent way to exercise choice and control over their online purchases and payments. Billeo functions as the catalyst to make online purchases and bill paying as easy and financially rewarding as possible. Billeo was founded by experts from the EBPP, card issuer, banking, ecommerce and technology industries.

BillShrink
BillShrink is an unbiased, free online service that saves people money by continuously updating personalized recommendations on everyday bills. BillShrink monitors millions of wireless plans, credit cards and gas prices across the country to provide an apples-to-apples comparison of the best options available on the market.

Bling Nation
Bling Nation brings mobile payments to consumers and merchant points of sale, offering lower costs, increased efficiency and improved security compared to credit cards, debit cards, checks and cash. The Bling Nation service also enables financial institutions and merchants to offer consumers robust rewards programs and real-time redemptions, promoting loyalty and convenience and supporting “shop local” initiatives.

BrightScope
BrightScope is an independent data analytics firm that quantitatively rates 401k plans and gives employers, employees, and brokers tools to enhance plan performance and maximize retirement outlook. The BrightScope Rating™ developed in partnership with leading independent 401k fiduciaries, reviews more than 200 unique data inputs per plan and calculates a single numerical score which defines 401k plan quality at the company level.

Canopy Financial
Canopy Financial provides innovative technology solutions that power the Consumer-Directed Healthcare (CDH) programs of some of the world's largest healthcare and financial institutions. Ranked #12 on the 2009 Inc. 500 list, Canopy empowers millions of consumers to take greater control of their healthcare dollars, enables price transparency for routine medical services, and increases the speed in which healthcare providers are paid.

CashEdge
CashEdge is the leader in Intelligent Money Movement™ services that enable financial institutions to engage customers in new ways. CashEdge's Intelligent Money Movement services provide a single point of access, through an online banking or mobile application, for multiple easy-to-use consumer and small business transfer routes.

Credit.com
Serving as an educator, advocate and facilitator, Credit.com empowers consumers with easy-to-understand information about money, credit, loans and more. Credit.com is partnered with trusted financial experts and select companies in order to offer online consumers insightful tips, helpful tools and excellent deals.

Fidelity National Information Services
Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., a member of the S&P 500 Index, is a leading provider of core processing for financial institutions; card issuer and transaction processing services; and outsourcing services to financial institutions and retailers. FIS has processing and technology relationships with 40 of the top 50 global banks, including nine of the top 10.

Firethorn (Qualcomm)
Firethorn, a Qualcomm company, is the crucial link in the emerging mobile commerce ecosystem. As a pioneer in mobile banking, Firethorn is transforming the traditional wallet into a streamlined, efficient and protected mobile revenue channel that will bridge relationships among financial institutions, retailers, wireless carriers and consumers.

Fiserv
Fiserv, Inc. is the leading global provider of information management and electronic commerce systems for the financial services industry, driving innovation that transforms experiences for financial institutions and their customers.

Home-Account
Home-Account is a web-based mortgage finding service helping America's 75 million homeowners take control of their largest asset-- their home via their ‘home-account’. The service grades and analyzes homeowners and their mortgages, presents scenarios to improve their financial situation and then pinpoints the best realistic mortgage options in the market.

Infosys
Infosys defines, designs and delivers IT-enabled business solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World. These solutions focus on providing strategic differentiation and operational superiority to clients. With Infosys, clients are assured of a transparent business partner, world-class processes, speed of execution and the power to stretch their IT budget by leveraging the Global Delivery Model that Infosys pioneered.

Intuit
Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Their financial institutions division, anchored by Digital Insight, provides on-demand banking services to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.

iPay Technologies
iPay Technologies is the leading independent provider of Internet bill payment services. Founded in 2001, iPay develops and fully supports consumer and small business online bill pay solutions for more than 2,800 financial institutions nationwide and in Puerto Rico. iPay offers a 99.93% payment success rate with more than 1,200,000 bill pay customers, and over 4,000,000 payments processed each month.

Kapitall
Kapitall is a rich web application that makes investing easy for everyone. Inspired by game design, Kapitall combines an intuitive and engaging graphic user interface with powerful tools that make it easier than ever to research companies, build portfolios, share ideas and get smarter about the market.

MShift
MShift, Inc. provides Mobile Banking solutions that offer the widest array of features, including Bill Payment, Presentment, Transfers, Account Summaries, History, ATM locators, and much more. MShift also provides the only available Facebook Banking application – online banking directly tied into the Facebook environment. MShift’s Facebook banking application won the Online Banking Report’s “Best of the Web” award for 2007.

On Deck Capital
On Deck Capital offers fair and fast financing to small businesses that do not meet traditional bank lending criteria. The company's proprietary underwriting and loan processing platform looks deeper into the health of small businesses, focusing on the overall business performance, rather than the owner's personal credit history.

Outright.com
Outright.com is incredibly simple, online bookkeeping specifically created for the 20 million Americans who work for themselves. Outright offers a streamlined, online solution, with the bookkeeping needs of the small business owners first. Outright's goal is to keep financial records as simple as possible, helping small businesses accurately track all of their income and expenses to estimate and prepare their taxes. And yes, it works on a Mac too.

PayByMobile
PayByMobile is a virtual wallet that will let anyone text to pay when shopping online. Shoppers load money on their wallet at the same shops where they top up to buy airtime and then simply text to pay when shopping at their favorite online store. PayByMobile uses familiar prepaid mobile usability to deliver a simple yet secure online payment alternative for everyone who has a mobile phone.

People Capital
People Capital underwrites students without credit history by projecting individual income levels and ability to pay. Their Human Capital Score™ incorporates merit data such as GPA, standardized test scores, college and major to provide a true and unbiased, data-driven measure of economic value of an education. Their peer-to-peer lending platform allows students to finance their college educations through improved access to private student loans.

S1 Enterprise
More than 100 banks and three million consumer, small business, and corporate users worldwide rely on S1 Enterprise solutions to access and manage their financial information. A division of S1 Corporation, S1 Enterprise is a leading provider of integrated banking solutions that deliver financial service providers a holistic view of their customers whether online, in the branch or in the call center.

Silver Tail Systems
Silver Tail Systems provides next generation fraud prevention to protect against business logic abuse - a rising threat on application logic costing financial institutions hundreds of millions of dollars and significant loss of trust. Silver Tail products use real-time behavior analysis to detect and alert on known threats and new behaviors, then enables the business to disrupt these attacks in real-time.

SimpliFi
SimpliFi is a free online financial planning and advice service that lets anyone plan for their financial future. The company was founded in 2004 as a tenant company in Wake Forest University’s Babcock Demon Incubator. SimpliFi is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, and has been providing white label financial planning services to credit unions since 2005.

Skill-Life
Skill-Life, Inc. began as CentsCity, LLC in January 2007 with the goal of building financially healthy youth and communities. Their initial vision of employing online gaming to teach financial skills has evolved into a more interactive, game-based, and comprehensive resource for awarding incentives and building life skills.

SmartyPig
SmartyPig allows customers to open goal-based savings accounts and to invite their friends and family to contribute to their goals. The system is based on proprietary, patent-pending technology and the latest in security standards. SmartyPig’s U.S. banking partner is West Bank, a subsidiary of West Bancorporation, Inc. The company’s Australian banking partner is Australian New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ).

Strands
moneyStrands is an innovative, easy-to-use online personal financial service that goes beyond providing financial analysis tools, with personalized money-saving advice and recommendations, and lets people anonymously compare themselves with people with similar backgrounds and financial goals. The interface is widget-based and highly customizable by the end user. moneyStrands is accessible via a full-capability mobile web version and a native iPhone application.

Yodlee
Leading financial institutions trust Yodlee to power critical online financial applications. Yodlee's personal financial management, payments, and customer acquisition solutions unify all personal financial account information to deliver a simple, centralized and secure source for consumers to manage all of their financial tasks anytime, anywhere. Yodlee makes financial institutions' websites essential to their customers and generates new revenue opportunities.

Bank Will Allow Customers to Deposit Checks by iPhone

Thanks @damjanov for sharing this from The New York Times

J. Michael Short for USAA

Customers of USAA can photograph both sides of the check, send the images through an app and then void the check.

By SUSAN STELLIN

Published: August 9, 2009

The Internet has taken a lot of the paperwork out of banking, but there is no avoiding paper when someone gives you a check. Now one bank wants to let customers deposit checks immediately — through their phones.

USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company, plans to update its iPhone application this week to introduce the check deposit feature, which requires a customer to photograph both sides of the check with the phone’s camera.

“We’re essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other check would,” said Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vice president.

Customers will not have to mail the check to the bank later; the deposit will be handled entirely electronically, and the bank suggests voiding the check and filing or discarding it. But to reduce the potential for fraud, only customers who are eligible for credit and have some type of insurance through USAA will be permitted to use the deposit feature. Mr. Peacock said that about 60 percent of the bank’s customers qualify.

USAA may seem like an unlikely innovator in mobile banking. It ranks in size just below the top 20 banks in the United States, and serves mostly military personnel, though many of its products are available to anyone.

But with just one branch, in San Antonio, and customers deployed all over the world, the company has been aggressively developing an anytime, anywhere banking strategy. Three years ago, it introduced the option of depositing a check from home using a scanner. That laid the groundwork for the phone deposit feature, which USAA plans to offer on other phones this year.

“Mobile is going to be a bigger part of how people do commerce and how they interact with their financial institutions,” Mr. Peacock said. “The great value that we see is the time savings.”

About a million of USAA’s 7.2 million customers use their cellphones to access their accounts — either via text message, a mobile browser or an iPhone application introduced in May. The deposit feature, which USAA previewed in an online video, puts the bank in the vanguard of the effort to turn cellphones into portable branches.

“USAA has been pretty progressive with this,” said Nick Holland, a senior analyst with Aite Group, a financial services research company.

The most popular banking tasks done on cellphones are reviewing account balances, transferring money, making payments and finding A.T.M.’s, analysts say. But in general, mobile banking has been slow to catch on. Mr. Holland said tighter budgets have forced banks to focus on using technology in ways that cut costs or generate revenue, rather than simply creating buzz.

“If banks can get people to stop calling call centers for mundane inquiries and instead send a text message,” he said, “that saves a bank about $14 for every one of those inquiries.”

Mr. Holland predicted that other banks would follow USAA and offer some type of mobile deposit capability, especially deposit options aimed at small-business customers who may be willing to pay for the convenience.

A study released recently by comScore, a digital audience measurement company, found that more than 15 million people in the United States used mobile banking each month, a number that is expected to grow as networks become faster and more people migrate to smartphones.

“It’s the iPhone that really propelled things to the forefront,” said Marc Trudeau, a senior director at comScore.

While comScore found that just 3 percent of mobile banking customers use Apple devices, Mr. Trudeau said the iPhone had paved the way for applications that let customers accomplish tasks more efficiently than with a phone’s Web browser.

For instance, Bank of America, which has an iPhone app, has more than three million mobile banking customers, and 43 percent of them bank with an iPhone or iPod touch, said Tara A. Burke, a company spokeswoman.

A cellphone is also always at hand, so it is potentially a more convenient than a computer. In fact, comScore found that people most often use mobile banking services at home.

“We’ve all seen the ads showing people banking from a beach in the Caribbean,” Mr. Trudeau said. “The reality is much more mundane than that.”

Brands tap do-gooder impulse to encourage consumers to pass along marketing messages

Thansk Matt for shiring this from Adweek

May 18, 2009
-By Brian Morrissey

NEW YORK Target is no stranger to cause marketing. The retailer is unusual in that it dedicates 5 percent of its income to charity. It's also no stranger to social marketing, having more than 260,000 fans on Facebook.

Last week, it brought the two together by kicking off "Bullseye Gives," a campaign that invites users to choose from a list of 10 charities to which Target will donate $3 million. The social twist: After voting for a charity, users are invited to broadcast their selection to their Facebook friends via their news feeds, the running summary of updates that is central to the Facebook experience. In less than a week, Target tallied 40,000 votes, which translated into tens of thousands of peer-to-peer impressions.

The effort is one of several undertaken by companies recently that use charities to give people a reason to share brand messages. In the social world, the central front for brands is what's been called "the stream," the real-time feed of updates, links and bits of content that has become the defining characteristic of Facebook and Twitter. Entry to the stream is coveted by brands desperate for the word-of-mouth appeal that comes close to a personal recommendation to friends.

"What we've learned is it's not the cause but it's the idea of a brand truly doing good that has a significant impact through social media," said Joe Marchese, CEO of SocialVibe, a Los Angeles-based startup that runs cause-related social campaigns for brands like Kraft, Sprint and PowerBar. "When you do something good, it used to be that you had to buy a bunch of media and tell people or do PR. Now, the potential is for people to tell each other that you do good."

For brands, particularly those in low-consideration categories like consumer goods, charities can become a cheap way to get access to the megaphones everyone has in social media. Take Colgate. It created a Facebook application called Smiles that languished for months, with just a few hundred people sharing it. Then it hooked up with SocialVibe to recast the tool to tap into the do-good vibe. The brand offered charitable donations each time users shared Smiles. The result: The widget was shared 500,000 times in five weeks.

Kraft is in the midst of a "Share a Little Comfort" campaign that offers to donate 1 million boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese to needy families based on the number of messages people share via Facebook and Twitter. The added bonus of such programs, according to Marchese, is that brands can simply redirect some of their media budgets to cover the donations. It can turn out to be cheaper to offer donations in exchange for people-powered media than buying ad space for promotion. So far, more than 23,000 messages have been posted in response to Kraft's effort.

There is a downside, of course. Efforts can cross the line into social-media spam. Giving people an incentive to pass along messages from brands could come to be seen, reasonably, as an alternative way for brands to buy their way into conversations.

"If it's viewed as a front and that you don't really care, then it can be a setback," said Steve Rubel, svp and director of insights at Edelman. "If it's viewed as a tactic to build buzz, not as a tactic to solve problems or effect change, then you're going to lose all credibility."

This has caused Procter & Gamble, for instance, to shy away from incentivizing sharing with its Tide "Loads of Hope" program, which donates clothing to disaster-stricken areas. It dabbled in the tactic during its "Digital Hack Night," when social-media experts tapped their networks to sell "Loads of Hope" T-shirts. But P&G has not chosen to promote the program the same way with consumers. "There's always a balance of inspiring authentic conversation and being too promotional," said Kash Shaikh, a Tide rep. "We don't want to be too promotional."

To get over that, and to give the marketing programs legs, SocialVibe in some cases sends participants evidence of what their pass-along did. For instance, charity: water, a cause devoted to providing clean drinking water in impoverished areas, takes pictures of the wells dug and sends them to participants a few months later. "People think back to the brands supported over the months and connect it with a specific action," Marchese said. To date, SocialVibe has raised $500,000 for three-dozen charities.

Charities are also a handy way to ensure that "viral" efforts don't completely fail. Sun Products brand All Small & Mighty used the lure of charities to goose distribution of YouTube videos it created last month. It linked up with NBC's Celebrity Apprentice to drive viewers to an All Web site to see videos created by Joan and Melissa Rivers. Each time a video is forwarded, All donates 50 cents to charity. The gambit fits with the Apprentice construct of awarding a winning team with a donation to the charity of its choice.

"We wanted to test how big of a role this would play," said Shiv Singh, social-media lead at Razorfish, the agency that created the program. "You can only create so much passion around a detergent."

The charity game has even gone in an unusual direction. Unemployed copywriter Chris Kahle is trying the approach in the hopes of getting his dream job with Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Last week he posted an offer to donate $1 to charity for the first 200 people who sent Twitter messages to Crispin co-chairman Alex Bogusky and interactive creative director Jeff Benjamin, urging them to hire him. That part of the gambit worked: Dozens of people sent messages to the execs. Bogusky was impressed, calling the idea "really smart," although he didn't commit to interviewing Kahle.

10 Tips for Social Media Marketers

Great post from the (now ex-market head at H&R Block). Thanks for this and the great work at H&R.

There have been many chapters in the book of my life, some sad but most really happy. I’m now at the end of another chapter and it is bittersweet. I’m leaving H&R Block to become the General Manager of a new online shopping site that will be launching this fall. I’m excited to start this new chapter as it is fulfilling one of my dreams, but, sad to leave behind a great brand and wonderful colleagues.

Over the last three years, the H&R Block brand has embraced the opportunity to communicate with consumers differently. We have been on the forefront of social media and been honored by positive mentions from thought leaders such as Shel Israel, Francois Gossieaux, Jeremiah Owyang, Jake McKee, Andy Sernovitz, and Chris Heuer. Traditional media has also taken note of the “tax company that could” with mentions in the Wall Street Journal, PC World, Advertising Age, ClickZ, and Marketing Sherpa among others. But most importantly, consumers have engaged with us in new and different ways through YouTube, Twitter, Second Life, FaceBook, Myspace and our own community site at hrblock.com.

This has been an incredible journey for me personally. The accomplishments we have achieved are the result of a team effort. I’m happy to know that I’ve had a positive influence on that team and overjoyed knowing that the team will be carrying the torch and continue to make a difference with our customers. There are some key learnings about social media that every corporate social media marketer should know:

• Every brand can be and should be “social” - Conversations about your brand and products are happening everywhere. You need to be part of the conversation and if H&R Block can make taxes social, your product can be social too.
  

• Just get started – It doesn’t take a big budget to get started in social media marketing. In fact, much of social media marketing is human capital. Start by listening. Set up Google alerts to look for conversations about your brand or product. Use TweetDeck and set up a brand search to monitor what is going on about your brand or product in the Twitterverse. Then participate in the conversation, just remember to be authentic, honest and transparent and you will be fine. If you take the first steps to engage in the conversation you will learn more about how your brand or product fits into the social media space and it will help guide any future programs.

• Integrated marketing vs. social media - There is a difference between an integrated marketing campaign that includes viral components or online/offline coordination and a social media program. A marketing campaign has a short life; it is singular in desired action and is usually focused on demand generation. A social media program is a commitment to engage and communicate with consumers where the consumer wants to communicate. If you are going to start a marketing campaign with social elements versus a social media program, you must start with the end in mind. The worse thing a marketer could do is build a group of fans, friends or followers without a clear exit strategy after the campaign is completed.
  

• Find your brand’s own path – What works for one brand in social media does not mean it is right for another. For example, the path of engagement with a movie franchise is very different than engaging consumers about taxes. Remaining true to your brand promise is the best way to approach social media. Utilize your brand promise as a guiding principle across all your social media efforts. Reflect it in the content that you create, the tone that you use, and the programs that you develop.
  

• Media $ versus human capital – I mentioned human capital earlier. Companies can spend a lot of money trying to launch a social media program. For the most part, I would really classify those efforts as an integrated marketing campaign. Your approach and funding of an integrated marketing campaign needs to be in line with the size and scope of your overall marketing budget. Social media programs can be a lot more cost efficient from a media budget standpoint, but, you still need human capital to run them. In many cases you may be trading media $ for the human capital needed to run a program. For example if you are taking the first step of listening and engaging in the conversation, there is no media buy necessary. However, you do need to have some person dedicated to scanning and responding. Ideally, that person is an employee of the company. Why this should be an employee leads to the next tip.
  

• Agencies play a great role, but the voice needs to be the company’s -There have been many company backlashes by having your agency respond in the social media space. Remember that the consumer wants to connect with you, not your agency. Your agencies can monitor and identify opportunities, but it is the company that needs to respond – authenticity is key.

• Your agency needs to walk the walk – I hate paying an agency to learn on my dime. When we started three years ago, social media was so new and changing so rapidly that we were all learning together. Today there are many different agencies that are building expertise in social media including public relations firms, interactive agencies and newly formed agencies focusing on social media. As you select an agency partner make sure that they don’t just talk the talk but also walk the walk. Are they active in social media? Does the agency blog or twitter? Judge the agency not solely on their pitch, but also on their actions.
  

• Get legal involved early – Your legal department can be an ally or a roadblock. What you need to understand is that in the area of social media there is not a lot of legal precedence to draw on. This makes your legal department nervous because it is more difficult to know the best way to protect the company. Involve your legal department early and help them understand your goals so you can build a partnership and not hit as many roadblocks. Ask your legal department to help you solve for the risks versus just state that you cannot proceed with a program. There are always solutions to mitigate risk. You and your legal department can find solutions together.
  

• Have a crisis management plan – The recent Dominoes episode clearly identifies the need of a crisis management plan. In a world of 24x7 communications, the brands that can respond quickly to a crisis will be the brands that weather the storm. A good crisis management plan must begin with active monitoring. Judgment will need to be exercised to distinguish a customer service issue from a true crisis management situation. Once a crisis has been detected, the brand will need to respond in a matter of hours not days. Early action will help nip a crisis in the bud before it explodes into something larger. No action or ignoring it will only exacerbate the issue. A brand that is already active in social media will also carry more credibility and rally more supporters to come to the brand’s defense.

• Selling the C-Suite or ROI – One of the most popular questions that I get asked is how to build support at the C-level. Having a clearly defined objective is critically important to gain support of any initiative. However, everyone is always focused on the ROI or return on the investment. I have defined ROI a little differently in this new and emerging space as Risk Of Ignoring. There is an absolute change occurring in how we communicate and seek information as a society. The millennial generation is the first digital native generation with very different expectations of companies and marketing. In the not so distant future the millennials will be a larger purchasing demographic than the boomers. Not understanding this segment will be detrimental for future marketers. Watch Shift Happens and share it with your senior leadership team. It is a great example of how we are living in exponential times.
  

The last topic is not really a tip but a reality of the brave new world we operate in – personal brands. The lines between all the roles we play as an individual are becoming blurred. Books like Me 2.0 are promoting self-branding. In the social media space there are divided camps and murkiness all around. Scott Monty has been accused of using his profession at Ford to drive his personal brand, when the reality is that Scott Monty has been using his personal brand in the social media space to promote Ford. On the flip side, individuals who participate in social media are experiencing the impacts of their personal communications being equated to corporate communications even when there are clear disclosures that the views expressed are their own. And we hear a news report every few weeks about how content that is shared publicly via FaceBook or Myspace is being used in employment screening.

There is not a guidebook on how to best proceed in the new age of communication. I play many roles. I’m a wife, mother, friend and employee. My communications take on elements of all the roles that I play. I know I’m not perfect and I’m making mistakes as I learn. The best advice I have in this area is for you to realize that the sum of all your activity through social networks does become your personal brand. Understand your goals for your personal brand. Are you going to use it specifically as a friendship connection, to maintain professional connections, or are you trying to build a personal brand to promote yourself? These are three distinct paths that will drive different types of communications. Understanding your end goal is the first step to navigating a space filled with landmines.

I know that H&R Block will continue to be a leader in the social media space because they truly care about engaging in customer dialog. I leave behind a great team of talented professionals who are as passionate about social media as I am. A bright future lies ahead for H&R Block and I will be cheering them on from the sidelines.

As sad as I am to leave H&R Block, I’m excited to start my new chapter. I’m also thrilled to start actively engaging and sharing in the conversation. Due to competitive considerations I have been limited in my ability blog openly, as I start my new adventure expect to hear from me more frequently. Stay tuned for more…

Kachingle Coordinates Microdonations to Get Content Creators Paid

Thanks again PSFK

February 19, 2009

Kachingle is a new service that looks like it could bridge the gap between scattered micropayments and free content. Many old media pundits have been suggesting micropayments as a solution to monetizing dying newspapers and other online content, but historically, micropayments don’t do as well as they should. It’s a hassle to pay every time you want to read an article, and you can often find the same content for free elsewhere.

Kachingle acts as a distributor of microdonations. Member sites would sign up and place a Kachingle badge on their page. Readers pledge to send a monthly payment to Kachingle - $5.00, $10.00, $100.00 or whatever they want. Then, Kachingle distributes that money proportionately amongst the partner sites you’ve visited over the month. So, if you visited PSFK 50 times, and The New York Times 50 times, your pledge would be split evenly, and so on.

It’s a smart concept that simplifies the act of micropayment, or micropatronage. With one payment and a once monthly transaction, you can support your favorite sites. Though critics don’t think Kachingle will make a ton of money for its member sites, it could - combined with advertising - make for a healthy revenue stream.

[Editor and Publisher & Steve Outing via Klintron]

Online Personal Finance Traffic Soars

Thanks NetBanker for this overview of personal online finance sites

Online Personal Finance Traffic Soars; Mint Passes One Million Unique Visitors

January is always a great month for personal finance. Consumers working off holiday spending binges and/or attempting to live up to New Years resolutions naturally find their way to personal financial management sites. It's especially pronounced this year as consumers try to better understand their spending and manage for the downturn.

So it's not surprising to see that traffic grew by 300,000 unique visitors in January (+20%) compared to December. Total traffic was up 4.5-fold at sites open for a year or more (see Table 1). Including the class of 2008, total traffic was 2.0 million, a 5-fold increase from a year ago.

Highlights:

• Mint had another great month, increasing site visitors by about 200,000, a five-fold increase in the past year. Mint's gain in January was more than that total traffic of all nine 2008 newcomers combined. Mint had a 60% market share of the total of 1.8 million visitors in the category, about the same as December.
• Geezeo continued its wicked pace, growing 30% during the month, and posting a 12-fold increase over a year ago.
• Quicken Online, which launched in January 2008, more than doubling to 150,000 visitors compared to December. However, traffic at Quicken is hard to compare to other sites due to the massive traffic at its parent site: for example, <quicken.intuit.com> received 1.2 million visitors and <intuit.com> website had more than 10 million.
• Wesabe was the only site in those open for a year or more that turned in a traffic decline, falling more than 30% in the month. However, keep in mind the Compete estimates are derived from an online panel and are not always accurate, especially for sites in the low six-figures or less. The company said that it had record page views in January. That includes both the traffic from the U.S., measured by Compete, and international visitors.
• BudgetTracker also turned in amazing results, nearly doubling its traffic to an estimated 27,000 visitors.
• Of the 2008 startups (see Table 2), Thrive was the only one showing strong growth, increasing 50% over the previous month. Friday the company was acquired by Lending Tree for an undisclosed amount.

Table 1: Traffic at online PFMs launched more than 1 year ago

	Jan 2009	Dec 2008	Jan 2008	YOY Chg
Mint	1.1 mil	890,000	200,000	5.2x
Geezeo	220,000	170,000	18,000	12x
Yodlee	120,000	100,000	84,000	44%
Finicity/Mvelopes	100,000	71,000	91,000	10%
Wesabe	89,000	140,000	56,000	60%
BudgetTracker	27,000	14,000	15,000	86%
Buxfer	22,000	15,000	13,000	78%
PearBudget	12,000	7,600	4,200	3x
ClearCheckbook	11,000	9,100	4,600	2.3x
Total	1.7 mil	1.4 mil	490,000	4.5x

Table 2: Traffic at the online PFM class of 2008

	Jan 2009	Dec 2008	Month Chg
Quicken Online	150,000	53,000	1.8x
PNC Virtual Wallet	41,000	45,000	(9%)
Rudder	39,000	61,000	(35%)
Thrive	21,000	14,000	52%
Scred	2,600	630	4x
Expensr	2,500	3,700	(32%)
RateSurfer	2,100	3,600	(41%)
Expensify	1,400	600	2.5x
Banzai	1,300	1,500	(15%)
GreenSherpa	400	ina	--
iThryv	210	2,100	(90%)
Total	260,000	185,000	41%

Source: Compete, 7 Feb 2009; estimates of monthly unique visitors from the United States

*The percent changes were calculated from the underlying data set and due to rounding of the monthly traffic figures, the percentages may look slightly off

Note: For more information on the market, see our Online Banking Report on Personal Finance Features and Online Banking Report on Social Personal Finance.

Barclays launches first 'brand concept' bank in Piccadilly

Thanks Brand Republic - Banks going places

by Staff, Brand Republic 19-Dec-08, 08:55

LONDON - Barclays has launched what it is calling the first "brand concept" bank branch in the UK, piloting digital technology underneath the iconic Piccadilly Circus lights in London's West End.

The site at Piccadilly Circus was acquired by Barclays earlier this year and has been developed into a site covering 8,000 square feet of retail space over three floors.

Making extensive use of new technology and design, the branch opened its doors yesterday and will be officially launched at the end of January.

With the opening of the branch, Barclays becomes the first bank in Europe to pilot Microsoft Surface technology, which will allow users to grab digital content with their hands and navigate information about Premier banking with simple gestures and touches.

The techniques are reminiscent of the Tom Cruise film 'Minority Report'.

A major feature of the branch and the first aspect visitors will see is 'Being:London', an interactive and evolving installation representing London and it's people.

It will graphically represent the city on a large video wall using content from blogs, showcasing Londoners' interests, ideas and concerns. Personal consoles will allow people to contribute to the installation and explore relevant information from Time Out.

Outside of opening hours, the front of the branch will be transformed into the 'Night Life' installation screen.

It will pick up the image of passers by using face recognition technology and cameras, creating moving silhouettes on the screen with thought bubbles containing random messages.

The Piccadilly branch has full banking functionality for all types of personal and business customers with extensive customer space and dedicated private rooms.

Cashier counters are kept open with no glass screens while an innovative curved queue rail softens the waiting area.

Mike Amato, chief distribution and product officer for Barclays, said: "This is the first time that a bank has opened a store such as this.

"We have taken inspiration from retailers such as Apple and Nike and developed a space that attracts and engages individuals while conveying what the Barclays brand represents.

"Our plan for Piccadilly has been to build not only a branch of the future but a branch befitting the iconic setting.

"We have embraced innovative technology and design to attract the interest of the Piccadilly community in an innovative and generous way."

Customers waiting will also be met by floor-walking staff equipped with handheld PCs to answer queries without the need to wait in line.

A large self-service area includes a foreign ATM dispensing dollars and Euros, and deposit machines for cash, cheques and coins.

The branch will be open seven days a week, 9am to 7pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on Saturdays and 12pm to 5pm on Sundays.

Barclays is undergoing an ongoing refurbishment of the entire branch network in the UK, which currently stands at 1733 branches, after extensive staff and customer consultation.

Top Mobile Trend: Mobile Giving

Thanks Next Great Thing for this on Mobile giving. Who says gen Y are a bunch of self-obsessed, navel gazing shifters?

November 17th, 2008 by Allison

Gen Y is often called “socially-conscious,” but they’ve also been tagged with “impatient,” “distractible,” and—like most youth—a bit “poor”. After throwing virtual change at Obama for a year, though, young philanthropists seem to be in the swing of giving. The Democrats just made it so easy; they didn’t even have to leave Facebook! They also rallied young supporters at events to text in small donations. This method of giving works for youth because it’s very impulsive—like them—so the donor barrier is lowered significantly. Now we’ve noticed a handful of new charity platforms looking to quite literally “mobilize” this young civic-minded generation.

This new trend hinges on the work of the Mobile Giving Foundation, which effectively eliminated the “carrier barrier” to mobile charity. Previously, carriers would take a big chunk (HALF!) of every donation. Combined with a cap of $5 donation per text (with a max of 5 texts = $25), the model was completely unfeasible. Now MGF has positioned themselves as a clearinghouse, managing to get fees waived for select non-profits so 90% of the donation goes to the charity, while they take 10%. The only stickler is Verizon, which only approved about 20 non-profits on its network.

Several application service providers are working with MGF to help non-profits run and manage their campaigns across platforms, while other companies are reimagining donation models to work on mobile.

• mGive from Mobile Accord allows micro donations via text with carrier billing through MGF. Alicia Keyes used this text-to-donate platform during her As I Am concert tour, asking her fans to text the word ‘ALIVE’ to shortcode 90999 to donate $5. Her effort raised $40,000 in donations for Keep a Child Alive.

• MobileCommons helps non-profits, advocacy and political groups create, manage and report on SMS communication campaigns. Campaigns are already learning how to engage women through mobile technology. Using MC technology, the Women’s Campaign Forum obtained 150 nominations of pro-choice women who should run for elected office via text message for its She Should Run program in about five minutes (more on it here).

• CredoMobile is an MVNO that builds giving right into their revenue model. They started back in 1985 with a long distance service where 1% of your charges went to progressive nonprofits of your choice. As they put it “your bill serves as a progressive newsletter and your phone company as a progressive lobby.” Now they’ve switched to mobile and to date, the company and its members have donated more than $60 million to NPOs. The company raises money–and awareness–for voter registration. Last year they staged political street theater using projected cartoon images on the sides of buildings drawn by political satirist Tom Tomorrow. Passerby could text dialogue inside the thought bubbles of Bush and Cheney.

Does this economy make my butt look big?

Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig Suffer as Consumers Have Less Money to Spend on Losing Weight

Thanks to Emily Bryson York - CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- The economy is making you fat.
As gas and commodity prices rise, consumers are finding themselves with fewer spare dollars to reduce their spare tires. As a result, marketers of organized diet programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are expected to feel the pinch.

No dearth of dieters: according to Marketdata Enterprises, 72 million Americans are or will be on a diet this year, up from 55 million a decade ago.

"It's definitely a discretionary dollar," said Michael Binetti, a UBS analyst who lowered earnings-per-share guidance for Weight Watchers last week. Even though the iconic diet program enjoys an advantageous position in that it has strong brand equity and low start-up costs, Mr. Binetti said the 20% of Americans who describe themselves as being on a weight-loss regimen have increasingly been reporting that they are "on their own diet."

Weight Watchers President David Kirchhoff told investors last month that he remains confident in his company's ability to deliver strong results despite "uncertainty in the economy."

What they cost
Other dieting programs such as Jenny Craig charge several hundred dollars in start-up costs, and then members must pay for their food. Weight Watchers charges monthly membership fees between $10 and $15 per week, and their dieters can choose to buy food from the company, products made by licensed vendors, eat out or cook at home.

Jenny Craig is a closely-held private company that declined to comment for this story. Weight Watchers did not respond to requests for comment.

John LaRosa, research director of Marketdata Enterprises in Tampa, Fla., said dieters don't "give up" on losing weight when they need to tighten their belts, "but they will shift toward less expensive do-it-yourself methods instead of doing a structured program like Jenny Craig that might cost $1,100 to $1,200 over three to four months." Mr. LaRosa said some penny-pinchers will go out and buy the hot new diet book, get supplements from GNC, diet pills from the drugstore or join one of the many free online programs.

There's certainly no dearth of dieters. Mr. La Rosa said 72 million Americans are or will be on a diet this year. That's up from 55 million a decade ago.

Success in past recessions
Recessions haven't always been bad for Weight Watchers. The company launched its highly successful "points" system in 1997, but the program was still popular in 2001. Under the system, every imaginable food from celery sticks to banana splits has been assigned a points value. Members are given a number of daily points to eat based on their height, weight and activity level. The system attracted members, Mr. Binetti said, but there just hasn't been much innovation since then.

Despite a flashy new campaign from agency McCann Erickson, New York, this year, Mr. Binetti said that Weight Watchers is still grasping for "new news." The company, which spent $127 on measured media in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence, has been outflanked by Jenny Craig in the past year.

Need to reconnect
"They've seen a multiyear slide," Mr. Binetti said of Weight Watchers. "What they need to do is reconnect with new dieters and make it more convenient for customers to embrace the weight-loss plans."

After controversial but highly publicized campaigns with Kirstie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli, Jenny Craig moved its $55 million account from JWT, New York, to Y&R, Irvine, last winter. The company, which still works with Ms. Bertinelli, has added Queen Latifah to its roster.

Jenny Craig has had its share of bad news lately. Unconfirmed reports have circulated that Ms. Alley, who lost 75 pounds on the program, has ballooned up to 240 pounds. Though she is no longer under contract to Jenny Craig, publicity about a weight gain is the last thing the company needs. "If she gains it back, [potential clients] say, 'I guess Jenny Craig wasn't that successful over the long term,'" Mr. La Rosa said.

MoneyAisle: Live Auctions Where Banks Compete for You

Cheers to Mashable for this post on a new finance site/model in which banks bid for consumers:

MoneyAisle

June 9, 2008 — 04:05 AM PDT — by Kristen Nicole —


MoneyAisle’s service launches today, and its offering may be something that becomes more commonplace in the coming years. As banking options move online, and comparative tools like LendingTree streamline the process on the banking and consumer side, one trend in particular is slowly overtaking the banking industry overall.

Consumer-centric models of banking and custom features are core to MoneyAisle’s service, which revolves around an online auction marketplace where banks bid for customers. It’s almost the reverse of an auction site like eBay. Banks using MoneyAisle can bid against each other in live auctions, starting with certificates of deposit (CDs), and high-yield savings accounts. These are the first two product offerings from MoneyAisle, and the company expects to expand beyond these two for more consumer offerings in the near future. Upon today’s launch, MoneyAisle has about 100 bank partners.

Aside from providing a 24/7 live auction service that aims to give consumers the best rate possible as banks literally compete for customers, MoneyAisle is touching on several developments we’re seeing in the banking and lending industries. The overarching trend is the leveraging of technology and online networks for the ability to survive.

But will MoneyAisle work? The concept will surely continue to develop, that’s for sure.

Sites like Zopa are taking a similar approach to lending, as consumers are able to put their requests (amount, interest rates, etc.) on the table and receive loans accordingly. We’re also likely to see services similar to MoneyAisle emerge in the coming year, as more banks become willing to participate in such services.

Banks are readily becoming more consumer-centric, looking to technological innovations in order to provide a competitive, custom experience. Capital One lets you customize your credit card with a photo, and JP Morgan Chase is planning on using Rearden’s concierge features as a perk for its banking customers.

http://mashable.com/2008/06/09/moneyaisl/