Avidia Bank Cashes In on the Cardless Trend Using Hootsuite

Banks worldwide have begun implementing cardless cash, which allows users to access their money via their smartphones and eliminates the need for ATM cards and PINs. Cardless cash programs both simplify the customer experience and are a big step forward in the digital transformation of financial services organizations.

Avidia Bank is one such firm that’s embraced cardless cash. The Hudson, Mass.–based bank, formed in 2007 from the merger of Hudson Savings Bank and Westborough Bank (both of which were founded in 1869) and boasting $1.3 billion in assets as of 2015, offers a mobile app that enables customers to use their smartphones to withdraw money from ATMs and branch locations. The app cuts transaction time from one minute to 10 seconds and reduces the risk of security and fraud issues since it doesn’t rely on card data transfer. Overall, it is more user-friendly and secure.

But the program needed promotion on social media, and for that Avidia turned to Hootsuite’s social media platform. The bank’s social media strategy relied mainly on organic interactions as opposed to paid ads, and its marketing team elected to do influencer targeting, as the cardless cash launch was the first of its kind for the bank. With Hootsuite’s help, the marketing team selected social media influencers in financial services and notified them directly about the campaign. “We have a robust team of brand ambassadors, and the Cardless Cash campaign was a valuable way to see how big of an impact our ambassadors could make organically on social,” says Kate Cwieka, associate vice president of social media and brand communications manager at Avidia Bank.

The team also used Hootsuite to publish campaign content and create streams to monitor the cardless cash hashtag, brand mentions, industry conversions, and general news. Because these streams refreshed automatically, the team could view relevant conversations and connect with customers directly. “The community sharing and social listening components on Hootsuite have been instrumental to growing our brand organically from the beginning,” Cwieka says.

Avidia also capitalized on Hootsuite’s integration with Proofpoint Social Media Protection, a social media security and compliance solution. Proofpoint ensured that all social engagement with Avidia Bank was happening through Hootsuite, as any noncompliant messages or commentary would trigger a warning that enabled the marketing team to respond quickly, reducing the risk of poor-quality engagement. Proofpoint automatically reviews content for brand risks such as inappropriate language, compliance violations, and security risks such as malware and phishing links.

With Hootsuite on board for its cardless cash campaign, Avidia Bank doubled its Twitter followers and saw a 10 percent growth in Facebook followers. Campaign sentiment was 83 percent positive, and whereas the bank’s social media posts normally yielded about 700 impressions with an engagement rate of 3 percent, the campaign’s teaser post alone had 2,030 impressions and a 10.1 percent engagement rate. Furthermore, the bank has seen a 13 percent increase in mobile app enrollments since introducing cardless cash. 

The Payoff

Using the Hootsuite social media platform for its cardless cash social media campaign, Avidia Bank has seen:

• its Twitter followers double and its Facebook followers grow by 10 percent;
• the teaser post of its campaign yield 2,030 impressions with an engagement rate of 10.1 percent;
• 83 percent positive campaign sentiment; and
• a 13 percent increase in cardless cash enrollments.