The primary objective for this campaign was to drive brand affinity for TD across N. America (US & Canada). This was to be done using online / social channels to drive video views as well as our retail network and employees to drive engagement.
2019 J.D. Power data indicates that since the financial crisis, bank reputations have declined – with customer perceptions of retail banks lower than in 2009. Many customers think that banks prioritize profits over people, which dehumanizes the relationship. To bring a human viewpoint to this relationship and change this perception, we started the #TDThanksYou campaign to highlight the deep personal relationship that our bankers have with our customers, the authentic connections that our customers have within their communities and to genuinely thank our customers for making the world a better place.
The strategy sought to differentiate TD from the common perception that banks are self-centered profit-seekers that don't really care about the people nor the communities they serve.
In order to do this, we had to prove that TD genuinely wants to enrich the lives of customers and communities across North America. We needed to make real people the focal point of our narrative to show that we really know and care about our customers and our local communities – and most importantly that we appreciate them all.
In looking to find real people who could be the focus of this narrative, we turned to small businesses, which are truly the local intersection of business and community. In addition to creating 2/3rds of net new jobs and driving innovation and competitiveness, small businesses greatly contribute to the local communities in which they operate. Recent TD survey data found 73% of small businesses provide support to local charitable causes, helping our communities thrive. More than ever they deserve a “Thank You”.
Our employee relationships with their customers are truly special and unique – we hear story after story of employees going out of their way for our customers. As such, they're incredibly motivated to participate in #TDThanksYou. So, we reached out to our colleagues to ask them to submit stories of TD small business customers positively impacting their communities.
Out of hundreds of businesses nominated by our staff, we identified 7 small businesses across the US and Canada making a BIG impact in their local communities. We brought the community together to thank these businesses in a BIG way with oversized and highly emotional personalized thank you notes. Further, we surprised them with gifts to continue their important work – capturing it all on film.
We shot these stories knowing that they would eventually be consumed by individuals in different states of receptibility (Lean-in, on-the-go or lean-back). We created multiple assets to be deployed using different media tactics across GDN, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter, Now This, Snapchat as well as our owned channels.
But we didn't stop there. We kicked off the campaign by celebrating a Customer Appreciation Day the across US and Canada – encouraging over 80,000 of our front-line staff to thank as many customers as possible. Even our CEO joined in, writing a handwritten thank you note which was shared on TD’s LinkedIn profile. This led to our employees really taking the world wide web by storm. Thank you's flowed in across North America – on Customer Appreciation Day (July 25th), #TDThanksYou was the #1 trending hashtag on Twitter in North America and the #3 trending hashtag worldwide.
Our stories were seen 70 million + times across social platforms both sides of the border with a combined performance of a 70% Video Completion Rate – well above platform benchmarks.
Through these inspirational stories of our customers and their impact on their communities, we were able to successfully achieve our objectives and differentiate ourselves.
The results from our Kantar Brand Lift Study with media partner 'Now This' confirms the veracity of the strategy. The campaign drove statistically significant increases in the majority of brand attributes with directional increases in nearly every metric, the highest being:
Above all - this campaign helped TD to drive brand affinity: 8% increase → 30% lift.
(Source: Kantar brand lift study. 400 total respondents A18-54. Q3 2019.)
Kantar's in-market ad tracking methodology also indicated the ads generated strong affinity and persuasion with the Jacob Restaurant video driving the highest affinity score, 11% higher than TD's ad tracking norms.
The campaign also generated a lot of positive sentiment – of the 1,639 mentions on Customer Appreciation Day, 77% had positive sentiment.
In the words of Barbara Askins, President & CEO of the 125th Street Business Improvement District in Harlem, “It is nothing but a positive for us for the community to see how big businesses and small businesses are working together."
