Ulster Bank offered new student customers an 'exotic' dance – but banks have always been trying to tempt us, writes Rosita Boland
AT A TIME where there is little to be amused by in the banking sector, whether at home or abroad, Ulster Bank unwittingly provided us with a laugh this week. Someone in marketing was not concentrating as they might have been when it emerged that, as part of an incentive to new students at Tallaght Institute of Technology for opening accounts with Ulster Bank, they were being offered a free ticket to “Exotic Dancers Metro” – a strip show.
Once parents started complaining and when the bank finally realised just what kind of dance show ticket was in their goodie bag, they promptly withdrew the offer, but not before we all got to know about it. “Seemed like a good idea at the time; here’s a better one: €100 when you open and use your student account,” the student section of their website says, although it’s unclear what the “good idea at the time” is referring to.
Attracting new undergraduates to financial institutions via incentives has being going on a long time. It makes sense. The Jesuits might say “Give me a child when he is seven, and I will give you the man,” but if a banking organisation attracts a student, the odds are good that that person will choose to remain with the same organisation once they start their working life.
The majority of students tend to think short-term instead of long-term when it comes to finances, hence any additional bonuses to open an account with one organisation rather than another are carefully scrutinised. Educational benefits don’t always feature. Perhaps the banks think that students need a break from their studies. They certainly know students have a lot of unstructured time, thus travel perks crop up a lot.
Allied Irish Bank offers its new student customers €50 and a free travelcard. Across the water, in their offer, HSBC includes two years’ free worldwide travel insurance, and 25 per cent discount on Lonely Planet titles. At Lloyds Bank, among the perks you receive are €41 of driving lessons with the AA, a “Pass Your Test” CD worth €23, a Youth Hostel Association membership for a year, and 35 music downloads.
BACK AT HOME, Bank of Ireland is encouraging its new student account holders to temporarily leave the country. It is offering its students a free return flight to one of nine European cities – London, Edinburgh, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam or Brussels – if you use your account five times in both October and November. Inclusive of taxes and charges, BoI estimates 20,000 students will avail of this offer.
Clearly, Bank of Ireland is confident it can deliver on these flights. Global economic difficulties notwithstanding, it’s startling to realise how we have come to accept the offer of free or very heavily discounted flights as an incentive to buy into something, whether a bank account or a piece of household equipment.
Ah, the Hoover offer. Ranking as possibly the greatest promotional disaster ever, in 1992 Hoover offered two free return flights to Europe with a spend of £100 on any of their products. An incredulous public surged forward to purchase the item that was both cheapest and closest to the required minimum spend – a vacuum cleaner.
While the cupboards of Britain filled up with unused Hoovers, travel agents struggled with the ever-increasing numbers of people looking to honour the flights. In the middle of all this mayhem, instead of trying to attempt some damage resolution, Hoover launched a second promotion – free flights for two to the US. It all ended costing the company £48 million (€55 million) and made them an international laughing stock.
Whatever luckless marketing person at Ulster Bank had an uncomfortable conversation with their boss this week, we can assume it still was as nothing compared to the roasting their opposite number would have received at Hoover back in the 1990s.
STRIPPER ALTERNATIVES
Other freebie incentives to open new bank accounts
Memory sticks
Broadband discounts
Travel passes
Cash
Music downloads
Book tokens
I-pods
Cinema tickets
Ikea vouchers
Travel insurance
Flights
Discounts on laptops
Youth Hostel membership
Driving lessons vouchers