VB Interview #3 - John-Paul Bernbach, Content Manager at Join2Grow.biz (adtech London 07)

I met John-Paul at the adtech event in London. JP is the Content Manager of Join2Grow, the social network for European entrepreneurs launched by Fortis earlier this year. JP works for Catherine Ossemerct.

In that inverview, we focus on the content of the site and JP explains how Fortis manage to engage its members. JP shoot video interviews, and since phase 2 they organize online events with a "live chat" feature.

If you are an entrepreneur, or if you know an entrepreneur who would be a good candidate for a video interview, please do not hesitate to register on Join2Grow.biz and get in touch with John-Paul.

CenterStage: Wells Fargo First Consumer-Generated Marketing Program

Today I have received an email from Ed Terpening, VP Social Media at Wells Fargo, to let me know that Wells Fargo are launching "Be Center Stage in the Rose Parade", their first Consumer-Generated marketing campaign.

Wells Fargo innovate again: they are the first large financial institution to join that type of contest. I have already expressed my admiration for Wells Fargo (cf my post Wells Fargo 2.0), but again well done to Ed and his team!

Buzz and WOM
Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo, and his teams are not only good at launching innovative services or marketing campaigns, but they also know how to generate buzz online.

Earlier today, Ed contacted the key bloggers in the industry: I invite you to check the posts from William Azaroff, Jim Bruene (I look forward to meeting Jim at Finovate 2007 in NYC next week) and Colin Henderson (just to name a few)

Sample video

VB Interview #2 - Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels at Fortis Merchant & Private Banking (adtech London 07)

I got in touch with Catherine back in July. We have exchanged our thoughts on social networking and the innovative platform Fortis launched back in February 2007, Join2Grow.biz.

Join2Grow is a social network for European Entrepreneurs. I invite you to check my first post on Join2Grow and my post on phase 2.

By the way, on Tuesday 26th September, they released the phase 3: the platform now offers a forum feature to its members.

Presentation of Join2Grow
During our conversation, Catherine explains Fortis strategy and goals for Join2Grow and she gives a few statistics about the website which counts now over 2,000 members.

Please remember that they target a very specific audience: the number of members is limited and so is the risk of brand damage due to bad comments and User Generated Content.

adtech London 07: a day full of excellent meetings

Excellent networking opportunity
One of the key benefits of attending adtech was the opportunity to meet with my peers and renowned experts. On the second day, I managed to talk (one-to-one) to over 20 people again.

I even managed to shoot three video interviews:
* Erik Hauser, Creative Director of Swivel Media and Founder of the Experiential Marketing Forum
* Catherine Ossemerct, Head of Media-Channels at Fortis Merchant and Private Banking
* John-Paul Bernbach, Content Manager at Join2Grow

I met some delegates from the following companies: Revolution, ebuddy, oddcast, otolabs, hitwise, intel, CapitalOne, eMarketer, Fortis, Yahoo!, ElmarReizen, tripadvisor, foviance, C2C, STA Travel, Swivel media, IBM.

The conference
I attended the following sessions:
* Brand Building in the Digital Age
* Online Branding: strategy and measurement
* Exploiting Emerging Online Segments
* Virtual Worlds - what value can they bring beyond PR & market research

VB Interview #1 - Fergus Hampton, CEO of Millward Brown Precis (adtech London 07)

Before executing a Web 2.0 project, it is important to clarify your objectives. What is your goal? Does it really make sens to launch a blog, a social network, or an island in Second Life?

adtech London 07: FirstChoice's 2wentysworld.co.uk

The first session I attented was entitled Online Communities as a Marketing Tool.
It was about FirstChoice and its social networking platform, 2wentysworld.co.uk.

At the end of the session, I had a good chat with Paul Clark, Product Manager at FirstChoice, and Jack Fairhall, CEO of Kwiqq.com, who I plan to interview soon.

I always welcome initiatives in the social networking space, and I would like to see more banks follow Fortis steps with their Network for European Entrepreneurs, Join2Grow (Catherine will be sharing her experience in Web 2.0 and User Generated Content tomorrow afternoon)

A few advice and remarks
* Before launching a new social network, make sure it is the right thing to do for your bank.
What do you want to achieve? Would a blog be more relevant? Are the people you are targeting already using other social networks such as Facebook or MySpace? If so, why would they spend time on another platform?

* No need to reinvent the wheel, if possible leverage an existing platform.
People are used to comprehensive and intuitite interfaces with the likes of Facebook or MySpace. It could be risky to offer them a far inferior service. Try to identify companies which provide a white label offer based on their robust platform.

* With the help of your web agency, identify and prioritize the list of key features you want to offer.
Distringuish the nice to have from the must have. For instance, it is critical to provide an advanced member search feature.

* Launching a new platform is not difficult, the real challenges are first to grow your member base and then to engage your members.
You want your members to use your platform as often as possible, post some User Generater Content, and recommend the service to their contacts. Think about useful content and value added service, think about ways to reward your most active members, your brand ambassadors...

adtech London 07: a productive first day

Today, I attended my first adtech event as a member of the Press. What a busy and productive day: I pretty much didn't stop meeting people from 9:00am to 6:00pm.

Excellent networking opportunity
One of the key benefits of spending the day at adtech was the opportunity to meet with my peers and renowned experts. I managed to talk (one-to-one) to over 20 people among the extensive list of speakers and delegates.

I even managed to shoot two video interviews of Fergus Hampton, CEO of Millward Brown Precis, and Mark Rogers, CEO of Market Sentinel.

Today, I met some delegates from the following companies: commission junction, MySpace, Grupo Planeta, ad pepper, Jeeran, bebo, Mediacom, Kwiqq, fortune cookie, Canales Alternativos, 1000 heads, vanksengroup, OgilvyOne, market sentinel, Idelix Software, arena, Millward Brown Precis, Cellity, First Choice, Spotify.

Keynote Address: Alan Rutherford, CEO of Digitas Global
As a kick off, most delegates attended the keynote session. Alan is a good speaker, and after starting his speech with his Philippines story, Alan talked about his vision of Marketing 2.0 and he reminded us about several successful online marketing campaigns such as Dove's "Campaign for real beauty", Amex's "The Members Project", Lloyds TSB's "For the journey", Vauxhall and Pontiac's viral marketing campaigns.
 
Alan showed us a couple of popular videos on the web such as the cadbury video (monkey & Phil Collins) or the Advertiser vs Consumer video (a couple having dinner). Marketeers love that video: Tim Collins, SVP Experiential Marketing at Wells Fargo, showed us the same video at the financial services club event in London in June.

Gorilla Cadbury Advert

Advertiser vs Consumer

I attended the following sessions on Web 2.0:
* Online Communities as a Marketing Tool
* Monitoring Consumer Conversation Online
* Researching and Creating Web 2.0 Experiences
* Blogging French Style
* Social Networking & Community Sites

Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, August 2007

A short post to inform you that the August issue of the Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce is now available online.

Reviewed Research Papers
* USA The Diffusion of Online Banking: Research Trends from 1998 to 2006 (By: Guosong Shao, The University of Alabama)
* South Korea Factors Influencing the Adoption Behavior of Mobile Banking: A South Korean perspective (By: Ki Soon Lee, Korea University, Hyung Seok Lee, Sahmyook University, and Sang Yong Kim,Korea University)
* Malaysia and USA The Influence of Trust on Internet Banking Acceptance (By: Khalil Md Nor, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and J Michael Pearson, Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale)
* Malaysia The Impact of E-Commerce Security, and National Environment on Consumer adoption of Internet Banking in Malaysia and Singapore (By: Yahya Dauda, A. Solucis Santhapparaj, David Asirvatham, Multimedia University Malaysia, and Murali Raman, Monash University Malaysia)
* Turkey Phishing Attacks and Perceptions of Service Quality: A Content Analysis of Internet Banking in Turkey (By: Murat Hakan Altıntaş and Necmi G¨¹rsakal, Uludag University)
* Nigeria M-Commerce Implementation in Nigeria: Trends and Issues (By: CHarles K. Ayo, Uyinomen O. Ekong, Fatudimu Ibukun Tolulope, and Adebiyi Ayodele A, Covenant University)

Opinion Articles
* India Online Frauds in Banks with Phishing (By: N. P. Singh, Management Development Institute)
* UAE A Preliminary Empirical Investigation of 'Brick-to-Click' Banking Presence in the United Arab Emirates (By: Bruce Budd, Zayed University, and Daniel Budd,  Edith Cowan University)
* Malaysia Correlation between Internet and ICT, Web Site Development, and Internet Marketing: Perception of Marketers in Malaysia and Singapore (By: Chai Lee Goi, Curtin University of Technology)
* India A Strategic Analysis of Search Engine Advertising in Web based-commerce (By: Ela Kumar, YMCA college of Engineering, and Shruti Kohli, Birla Institute of Technology)

Finovate 2007: the excellent banking 2.0 event organized by Jim Bruene

More than a month ago I found out about the excellent Finovate 2007, a one day event in New York, on Jim Bruene's NetBanker blog. Jim invited me to attend and added me to the list of bloggers.

On October 2nd, twenty of the most innovative companies in the financial space will demo their newest products in only 7 minutes each. It is a great opportunity to meet with the Founders and Senior Executives of those companies and network with the delegates, the press and some enthusiastic bloggers.

I look forward to meeting with Jim face-to-face and with my peers. And it is always a great pleasure to meet, and kick ideas, with founders and entrepreneurs who are usually passionate and motivational.

The presenters are all involved in hot topics such as Personal Finance, Social Lending (aka Peer-to-Peer Lending), mobile banking and online payments.

Web 2.0 and user-generated content in the banking industry
If you read Visible-Banking.com on regular basis, you know that I am interested in all kinds of web 2.0 initiatives in the Banking industry, especially any innovative services which improve customer satisfaction or help building an online community of active members.

It is good to see that more and more banks show interest, even though we need to remember that user-generated content is a big challenge for the regulated banking industry. Bad comments are potentially a threat and can damage a bank reputation (especially if the bank doesn't respond and address the concern...)

Reputation is critical and the risk slows down banks with their web 2.0 projects. At the same time, more and more people think their bank is letting them down. Customers are less and less faithful and they expect their bank to listen to them and demonstrate they care.

An event well attended by bankers
I am confident Jim's event will attract many bankers who need to better understand the impact of those twenty companies. Companies in the crowded Social Lending (Prosper or Zopa) or Personal Finance (Wesabe) spaces have very successfully managed to build strong online communities of committed and passionate users. They post on regular basis, share their ideas and concerns, and are happy to recommend their favourite platform. Could you find a better, more cost effective, and more efficient way to promote your service and grow your customer base?

Banks must watch out those companies and use them as a source of inspiration. How big the threat is? How could banks use the same approach to engage their clients? Could banks partner with those new players? (Money Management / Personal Finance is one of the key features desired by banking customers). Please check the excellent post of my ex-colleague James Gardner about Wesabe and Prosper.

Wells Fargo 2.0
I invite you to check my post on Wells Fargo 2.0. As far as I am concerned, Wells Fargo is the best example of how to use web 2.0 in the banking industry. Well done to Tim Collins, SVP - Experiential Marketing, Ed Terpening, VP Social Network Marketing, and their teams. In the last couple of months I had the pleasure to communicate with Ed and to meet Tim at the excellent Wells Fargo event organized in London by the Financial Services Club. Well done to Chris Skinner and Andy Coppell!

Mobile Banking offerings are blossoming all over the world. If you want a good overview of the US market, I invite you to check the excellent post by Brandon McGee, VP & Senior Product Manager (Mobile Banking), who is one of the guest bloggers on Jim's mobile money & banking blog.

List of presenters at Finovate 2007
Fraud & identity theft
* Identity Theft 911 

Online Account Opening
* Andera

Online Banking
* CheckFree /Corillian
* Digital Insight (an Intuit company)
* Metavante

Online Payments
* Billeo Inc
* iPay Technologies
* Online Resources
* Yodlee

Mobile Banking
* ClairMail
* Firethorn
* mFoundry
* MShift
* Monitise

Personal Finance
* Geezeo
* Jwaala
* Mint

Social Lending and Online Loans
* Lending Club
* Mortgagebot 
* Prosper Marketplace

If you plan to attend as a delegate or a speaker and you want to share your interest or expertise in web 2.0, please do not hesitate to send me an email (cm_langlois[AT]yahoo[DOT]co[DOT]uk) to make sure we meet during the show.

Congratulations Jim, you have done an amazing job!
Ideally, I would have loved to meet with a few other companies such as Wesabe, BillMonk or Zopa...

Personal Finance: Mint.com is now live

Yesterday I received an email from Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO Mint.com, announcing that Mint.com was now live.

This is excellent news in the Personal Finance space. We can expect new exciting initiatives and features from the healthy competition between all the key players such as Wesabe and Mint.



Please note that Mint.com was named best presenting company at TechCrunch 40. Guy Kawasaki (I invite you to read his fantastic book on entrepreneurship, "the Art of the Start") and Mike Harrington were part of the expert panel.

Congratulations Aaron to you and your team.