Sometimes even banks need to call on superheroes for help.
Synchrony Financial has launched a new augmented reality promotion with Sony Pictures Animation tied to Spider-Man's latest animated movie in an effort to attract new customers for its high-yield savings account.
At a recent Brooklyn event, customers interacted with an AR interface through their mobile phone’s web browser to fling virtual spider webs at bags criminals used to stash stolen money, with the the chance to win $1,000. A second sign-up contest tied to the promotion also gave customers the chance to win $1,000.
The company hopes that promoting a film with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes will help boost its brand recognition.
“It’s easier to get people excited about banking, and wanting to learn more about it, when you have amazing activations and fun things like Spider-Man and other Marvel characters,” said Chris Merrill, Synchrony’s chief marketing officer, in an interview with American Banker.
Synchrony isn't the only bank to turn to AR as a mobile feature, though the steps remain tentative.
MoneyLion has an AR feature in its iOS app called Grow Your Stack, which gives user a visual way to see how their savings, investments will grow over time. USAA is piloting an AR-powered app to help their members buy a car.
Overseas, the National Bank of Oman uses AR in its app to help users finds ATMs and branches. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia launched an AR home finder back in 2012.
Synchrony’s public event last week helped serve as a continuation of Synchrony and Sony’s “Save Like a Hero” marketing campaign, which the bank uses to market the high-yield, online-only savings account.
Craig Focardi, a senior analyst for Celent, doesn’t anticipate banks will make AR a “digital priority,” but the technology could serve as an effective marketing gimmick to attract younger consumers. “Some will use augmented reality to attract millennials and other early adopters of AR of any age and outcompete traditional banks and credit unions for these customers,” he said.
“Theme and event-based banking product marketing already exists and if AR becomes more popular, then traditional financial institutions may find it is an attractive, if not necessary, technology to have in the future,” Focardi said.
Following is a Q&A with Merrill on why the tech holds promise for them. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Does a digital, mobile promotion like this work for different demographics?
CHRIS MERRILL: When we first started having this conversation, everyone initially thinks, this skews younger to millennials. You’d be surprised, or maybe not, that the Marvel skew is more 35-45 than the 18-to-21-year-olds. The same is true for online banking.
Maybe the first early adopter of apps 10 years ago was a millennial. Maybe the first adopter of voice was a younger age. But now, everyone is doing it. Things like augmented reality, native apps, this kind of experience, while it seems at first blush that’s attracting a millennial audience, it’s amazing how it bodes pretty well across the spectrum.
How do you take this AR experience and apply it to other areas of banking?
I think with banking, it’s a little harder right now. But we do work with retailers. When you think of something like furniture, AR is a perfect example for that space. I’m redecorating my room and I want to purchase furniture, what would it look like in a certain spot. AR is a brilliant solution for the user to see that.
From a banking perspective, it’s more complicated. What is the use case? You’re starting to see AR used in advertising, but not is a way that’s going to change how you bank. I’m not sure at this point what the use case for AR is for everyday banking, but you are starting to see it in advertising and how you can do fun things with gaming and interaction instead of a standard banner ad.
To that point, you have to try new things. You have to try 10 things and two might work, and the rest may not. I love things like this. When I tell my boss we want to do something like this, maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. But we’re lucky that they haven’t said no yet.
Following up on that, how do you manage a mindset change within the company to be able to do different things?
Don’t get me wrong, we’re going to have our challenges. But I think the thing that spans from the top with our CEO and down through the ranks, the world is changing. We’re a four-year-old company as Synchrony with a very long heritage and you have to continuously reinvent yourself.
We’re going through this transformation as we speak of being much more agile. Everyone thinks of that on technology front and that’s the easiest to see, but how do you become more agile in marketing, digital advertising, legal and compliance?
This world of agile that started with technology is kind morphing to, for us specifically, into other functions and how we think about things and how do we get something out the door to try and test. I don’t want to spend six months and $20 million doing it, but let’s try something in a month for half a million dollars. If it works, let’s double, triple, quadruple down on it. If it doesn’t work, let’s move on to the next thing. That’s the part to me as a marketer that’s exciting that we can do that.
What’s the incentive for Synchrony to promote a film?
We’ve been in a partnership with Marvel and Sony for a few years. For us, the whole concept of digital is about how do we reach new audiences in a way that people want to be reached. This is our way of introducing Synchrony and how we can help consumers save. We love this because I can reach millions of customers in a fun way. We’re always thinking of ways to reach a new audience through digital technology and this is a perfect example.
