Online advertising for banks is no longer defined by Web banners and pop-ups. Marketing departments are also building campaigns on what Kelly Colbert, vice president of social media at US Bank, calls “experimental canvases” in a SearchCIO article. Examples of these canvases include social media sites like Pinterest, Vine and Instagram.
Recently, US Bank teamed up with news media company BuzzFeed to create a series of “listicles” for first-time homebuyers. The campaign did well, according to Colbert, netting 10 million impressions and helping the bank connect with hundreds of customers interested in learning more.
US Bank is not alone in capitalizing on social media. Reuters reports that Goldman Sachs launched a series of quick-hit recruiting ads on Snapchat last week to broaden its appeal to millennials. This makes Goldman Sachs the first major Wall Street bank to turn to the instant-but-fleeting messaging app for potential hires.
The ads appear on Snapchat’s Campus Story function, a curated platform for user-generated contents such as pictures and videos at college campuses nationwide. In the 10-second video clips, Goldman says it is seeking a “Campus Environmental Leader,” “Youth Sports Coach” or “Crowd Funding Champion,” and provides a link to gs.com/campus. Only Snapchatters whose phones indicate they are in and around a campus, or were there in the last 24 hours, are able to post to and view the Campus Story.
Goldman’s efforts to reach out to millennials comes amid mounting indications that careers in banking and finance hold a diminishing appeal among recent graduates. Even at elite business programs like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, the percentage of students opting for banking as a career is down by half or more since before the recession.
The move is the latest leg of Goldman’s bid to appeal to soon-to-be college grads and push back against the prevalent view of investment banking as an all-work-and-no-play career. The Snapchat clips along with establishing guidelines so that young employees do not work excessive hours are likely to help Goldman continue the growth of its employee population.
Goldman is one of the few in the investment banking industry adding employees. During the bank’s second-quarter earnings call, Goldman said its workforce grew 8 percent over the last four quarters, and rose 1 percent between March 31 and June 30. At the end of June, the bank had 34,900 employees.
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Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti
(Photo: The Art of Social Media, Flickr)