Jim Bruene, Author at Finovate

Capital One Pays to Play in Zynga’s Virtual Worlds

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 28, 2011
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Capital One, Citibank, Credit/Debit Cards, Discover Card

Like most, I’ve been amazed at how fast Zynga was able to build a 250+ million user base for its social games. But I’d never actually played one.

Until now. So make that 250 million and one users, because I couldn’t resist checking up on Capital One’s new product placement in three Zynga games (more on what players could do). The bank’s Facebook page, which has grown to 2.3 million likes, has details on the promotions (screenshot 1).

Although, it appears I may have missed my chance to interact with the CapOne goat, Visigoth statute or a virtual branch (the promo only ran one week), there are still credit card ads and mystery gifts available, at least in Farmville, the only game I tested.

Capital One viral gift & banner ads
Capital One may have ended the in-game elements for now, but they still have a presence in the game. Starting Farmville for the first time, I was greeted by a number of social elements, one of which is sending a Capital One gift (screenshot 2). There is no indication of what the gift actually is. Maybe that’s part of the fun, but it seems like a weakness to me. Am I sending someone a virtual goat or a solicitation for a CapOne card (mystery solved)?

The company is also running banner ads within the game (screenshots 5 & 6). Clicking on them takes users to the usual Capital One pre-approval page within a separate browser window (screenshot 7). Once you land on the CapOne site there is no mention of Farmville.

Discover Card & Citibank bonus offers
Game players are encouraged to buy all kinds of virtual goods. They can earn virtual currency in a number of ways, including using real world cash to buy credits. But users can also earn currency by participating in sponsored activities.

Both Citi and Discover are offering users virtual cash to apply, and be approved, for a credit card. Discover is offering virtual currency worth about $75 and Citi is handing out about $50.

My take: With 250 million users, the large brands owe it to their shareholders to see if they can make hay in Farmville and any other popular virtual world. And I suspect there will be a positive ROI for the right mix of promotion/offer. I have no idea what the magic formula is, but you know the direct marketing wizards at CapOne, Citi and the others will figure it out sooner rather than later (note 1).

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1. Capital One Facebook page (27 Sep 2011)

2. Capital One "free gift" in Farmville (27 Sep 2011)

3. Choose friends you want to receive the gift

4. Before you send the gift, you have the opportunity to see what the notice looks like to the recipient, and you can add a personal note

5. When I got back to the game, there was a large Capital One banner
Note: Starbucks promotion in lower right

6. Another Capital One banner ad served while playing Farmville
Note: Bank of Internet ad on right

7. The banner ad in Farmville, led to Capital One’s usual pre-qualification form

8. Discover Card and Citibank have powerful offers in the "earn cash" area.
Note: Discover offers 475 Farm Cash (worth about $75) for card approval, Citibank 300 (about $50).

9. The first screen after choosing Discover’s offer

10. Clicking Continue above leads to standard Discover Card app (in new browser window)

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Note: If you are interested in a fictional look at where the commercialization of Internet gaming is headed, I highly recommend Cory Doctorow’s For the Win.

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PG&E’s Convenient Mobile Bill Payment App

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 26, 2011
Categories: Bill payment, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payments

Skimming my news feeds in the post-Finovate logjam, I flagged a news release about a new app that just landed in the Android Market (the iPhone version rolled out last December). The app allows Californians to easily pay their PG&E power bills from their mobile phone using a credit/debit card or checking/savings account. It’s powered by Tio Networks.

And while you’d think that three years into mobile app era, there’d be hundreds, if not thousands of similar apps, a quick search of the Apple App Store came up empty (see note 1).

The app is drop-dead simple to use, as it should be (see screenshots below). The amount owed (across multiple PG&E accounts if necessary) is shown. Then, users select payment method, "sign" the screen with their finger, and submit. An email confirms the transaction.

TIO levies a $1.45 transaction fee per payment (well disclosed, see second screenshot below), which is a buck more than a stamp, but it also gives customers the option of paying by card, something that can’t be done in the mail, online or in person. And payments received by 5pm are posted the same day, an important benefit for the large segment of the population that prefers to pay bills at the last minute.

Summary: Company specific same-day billpay apps are a great convenience for the majority of customers who pay their bill upon receipt (rather than relying on automated options). We expect to see many more like this. FIs and payment processors that serve billers would be wise to help them mobilize their payments.

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PG&E mobile billpay screenshots (iPhone version)

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Notes:
1. There are likely at least a few others that I didn’t find. The app search tools are not super sophisticated.
2. As of 7 July 2011, there are more than 425,000 available apps and more than 15 billion cumulative downloads.

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FinovateFall 2011 Best of Show Winners Named

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 21, 2011
Categories: Best of Show, FinovateFall 2011

Wow, what a brilliant two days! Lots of new technology, creative twists on the state-of-the-art, and things that will someday be mainstream. As usual, at the end of each day the audience voted on their three favorite demos. Nine shiners were crowned Best of Show (see note for methodology).

FinovateFall 2011 Best of Show winners (in alphabetical order):

We’ll have videos of all 63 demos posted at Finovate as fast as possible (probably 2 weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who participated. I know it’s a cliche, but we couldn’t have done it without you!

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day progressed and to choose just three favorites from the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted.”
4. The nine companies (see #5) appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.
5. In general, we aim to highlight the top 10% of demos as Best of Show. In this case, we had a three-way tie for 7th place, so we ended up awarding 9.

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Finovate Fall 2011 Best of Show Winners Named

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 21, 2011
Categories: FinovateFall2011

Wow, what a two days! Lot’s of brilliant new technology, creative twists on the state-of-the-art, and things that will someday be mainstream. As usual, at the end of each day the audience voted on their three favorite demos and nine ended up being crowned Best of Show (see note for methodology).

FinovateFall 2011 Best of Show winners (in alphabetical order):

We’ll have videos of all 63 demos posted at Finovate as fast as possible (probably 2 weeks out).

Thanks to everyone who participated. I know it’s a cliche, but we couldn’t have done it without you!

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Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites as the day went on and choose 3 favorites from just the demos of that day. Ballots were turned in at the end of the last demo session each day.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed. Note: Ballots with more than three companies circled will not be counted.”
4. The nine companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named Best of Show.

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Finovate Fall Kicks Off Tuesday, Sep. 20

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 18, 2011
Categories: FinovateFall 2011

We’re thrilled to bring FinovateFall 2011 back to the Big Apple for the fifth time. And for the fifth straight time, we’ve broken the previous attendance record, with a crowd of 1,000 descending on Pier 92 Tuesday. Thanks everyone for your support!

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Schedule: Registration begins at 8:00 AM Tuesday and Wednesday, with demos starting at 9:00 AM each day. We’ll announce the Best of Show winners at 5PM Wed.

Live blog: This year, we’ll be live blogging the product announcements here on Netbanker. You can also follow the usually-quite-active Twitter stream at (#finovate). And Founder, Jim Bruene, will also be adding his 2 cents through our Finovate Twitter account. While there’s no live video stream, we’ll post full-length videos of each demo at Finovate.com within a few weeks.

Presenters: Sixty-four companies will launch new products via live, 7-minute demos from stage. Here are the presenters in alphabetic order.

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Finovate Fall 2011 Kicks Off Tuesday, Sep. 20

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 18, 2011
Categories: Finovate, FinovateFall2011

As a child, my family traveled all over the country by car, visiting just about every major city in 45 states. But my dad always steered at least 50 miles clear of New York City, so I didn’t get my first taste of Manhattan until I was almost 30.

Now, it’s my favorite city in the world, and I’m thrilled we are able to bring FinovateFall 2011 back to the Big Apple for the fifth time. And for the fifth straight time, we’ve broken the previous attendance record, with a crowd of 1,000 descending on Pier 92 Tuesday. Thanks everyone for your support!

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Schedule: Registration begins at 8:00 AM Tuesday and Wednesday, with demos starting at 9:00 AM each day. We’ll announce the Best of Show winners at 5PM Wed.

Live blog: This year, we’ll be live blogging the product announcements here on Netbanker. You can also follow the usually-quite-active Twitter stream at (#finovate). And I’ll also be adding my 2 cents through our Finovate Twitter account. While there’s no live video stream, we’ll post full-length videos of each demo at Finovate.com within a few weeks.

Presenters: Sixty-four companies will launch new products via live, 7-minute demos from stage. Here are the presenters in alphabetic order.

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Design: BillShrink Uses Splash Page to Introduce New Corporate Website and Truaxis Name

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 15, 2011
Categories: BillShrink, Website Usability & Design

You may not be changing your corporate name like BillShrink (press release), but you can use their technique any time you do a major website remodel. Throw a splash page on top of your old design highlighting the change(s), then redirect users to the new site (note 1).

The explanation on the splash page will reassure users that they have not landed on a fake site. And it provides an opportunity to highlight improvements and do some brand reinforcement.

You could use the same technique with major promotions, but the key word is MAJOR. It should be used VERY sparingly, or you will annoy customers while diluting its effectiveness.

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Truaxis/BillShrink splash page (15 Sept. 2011)
Note: In this case, BillShrink is still operating its old site. So consumers clicking on the right button will be sent to <billshrink.com>. Merchants and financial institution visitors will go to the new corporate site, <truaxis.com>.

BillShrink consumer site

Trueaxis corporate site
Note: Naturally, we love the Finovate Best of Show logos at the bottom (note 2), even if they are below the fold.

Notes:
1. In BillShrink’s case, they are still operating the old site. But they want their B2B prospects (merchants/banks) to visit their new corporate site, Truaxis.com.
2. Truaxis will be busy next week, presenting a new twist on in-statement rewards at our Finovate (see our sneak peek post). It’s also a finalist in Innotribe’s competition (here).

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Simplifying Product Search: PickHealthInsurance.com Delivers Relevant, Clean Results in Seconds

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 14, 2011
Categories: Sales Techniques, Service, Website Usability & Design

It’s been years since we did a deep dive into what I call “site search,” trying to find answers using a banking site’s own search and navigation tools. While things have gotten much better, most financial sites still have plenty of room for improvement (note 1).

And it doesn’t seem like a monumental problem. Even a large bank has how many retail products? 50? 100? Even if five times that, it’s TINY compared to other ecommerce sites. Amazon.com has 9,070 results just for “toaster.”

Consumers should be able to quickly find appropriate banking products by inputting four or five data points: age, ZIP code, family size, home ownership, annual income (for credit products), and average balance (for deposit products). Then, a list of relevant products should be returned in tabular format with a clear link to more details.

To see how this works, stripped of all ads and cross sales, check out the side project of Seattle entrepreneur Adam Doppelt, PickHealthInsurance.com. Users enter four pieces of info: ZIP code, age, family size, and whether they smoke. A few seconds after pressing Find Plans!, the site returns a table of potential choices (second screenshot).

It’s a very Google-like experience, something you can’t say about most banking sites.

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PickHealthInsurance input form (14 Sept. 2011)

Results page

Plan details page

Note:
1. Many financial institutions have sophisticated product comparisons, but it’s not always easy to find the tool to begin with.

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Launching: Cake Health is a New PFM for Healthcare

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 12, 2011
Categories: Launches, Personal Financial Management

Healthcare expense management continues to be a pain-point for most consumers. Today, Cake Health launched a “Mint for healthcare” which uses similar technology to automatically download healthcare transactions and use the data to manage insurance reimbursements and other aspects of healthcare.

The company also launched a mobile app that syncs with the desktop version and uses the camera to upload documentation to the system (screenshot below). The startup impressed the expert panel at TechCrunch Disrupt, where it launched today.

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Launching: Openbucks Gift Card Payment Network

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 12, 2011
Categories: Alt Payments, Launches, Prepaid/gift cards

Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, Openbucks announced its “gift card” payment network which works like an ATM switch; you can use whatever value you have in a participating gift card to buy something at any participating online retailer.

For example, you could use the $20 in your Subway card (a beta participant) to buy virtual goods at online games. Eventually, they want to expand beyond the purchase of digital goods.

The product is targeted to those that don’t have debit or credit cards, especially heavy game-playing teenagers. “Gift cards” would be added to the payment options at checkout at the gaming site.

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Heated Tech Frenzy During Next Two Weeks

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 9, 2011
Categories: Strategies

This is my favorite time of year. The kids are back in school, we finally get summer in Seattle (yep, the weather again), and there are 150+ tech product/company launches in the next 12 days.

First up are the general tech events next week in the Bay Area: TechCrunch Disrupt and Demo. Then the following week, it’s fintech’s turn with our Finovate in NYC Sept. 20/21 and the SIBOS Innotribe competition in Toronto. And don’t forget, BAI Retail Delivery is just around the corner, Oct. 11-13 in Chicago.

It will be interesting to see if there will be an innovation du jour this year. Unlike a few years ago, when mobile, online PFM, and social media all hit the scene at the same time, it’s harder to put labels on the class of 2011.

But in many ways, this month’s launches are more important than what we saw several years ago. Instead of general “blue sky” advances, we are seeing specific, actionable and profit-generating applications.

Mobile is the best example. Just three years ago, it was novel to show a bank balance on a cell phone. That was helpful for users, but didn’t do anything (positive) for the bank’s bottom line. Now, smartphones are used to deposit checks, geo-locate cardholders, and acquire customers, all potential profit drivers.

For all you tech observers, butter up the popcorn and enjoy the show.

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Reviewed: The American Express Gift Card Store and its New eGift Card Option

By Jim Bruene Posted on September 8, 2011
Categories: American Express, Credit/Debit Cards, Website Usability & Design

The banking website is a unique animal. Part account management. Part service. Part sales. Part consumer. Part business. And it all must pass muster with the CEO, IT, marketing, customer support, heads of business lines, the board, and about 2,000 regulatory agencies. It’s no wonder that it can be difficult to keep up with ecommerce Web-design standards.

When I started this post, the intent was to show how American Express had overcome typical banking shortfalls and was doing ecommerce right. I liked what I saw at first glance. But after diving in and actually using the gift card site, I have to say that the company still has quite a ways to go to equal Amazon.com, Buy.com or even Etsy.

My take: Overall, it’s a good structure for selling gift cards. But there are a number of things to clean up, mostly in the purchasing and fulfillment process. And the mobile option didn’t work at all, at least on the iPhone 4. For now, I’ll give it a B+ for layout/design and a C- for execution.

Let’s start with the good parts:

New virtual gift card costs $1 less ($2.95), has no shipping charges (which range from $2 to $8.95 per order), and can be emailed in near real-time
Option to create a “gift card account” to save payment info and make purchasing into a “1-click” process (only available to AmEx cardholders though)
Easy to find business or personal options by choosing the correct tab near the top
Shopping process uses cart system to order multiple designs and denominations
Ability to shop for cards for specific occasions (birthday, wedding, etc.)
Signup for email offers (bottom of main page)
Mobile shopping link to open a mobile-optimized site (bottom of page…which actually didn’t work on my iPhone 4, see below)
Personalization options including uploaded photos and recipient name embossed on card
Click-to-call (powered by Oracle) offered when arriving via Google AdWords ad
Link to purchase gift cards with Membership Rewards points
Unlimited next-day shipping option. Pay $99, and for the next year, all gift cards will be delivered for no charge via next-day shipping
Link to buy Gift Cheques for old-school users

What needs to be improved:

Inconsistent fee disclosure: Although the site discloses the $2.95 to $6.95 processing fee as items are selected, this fee is NOT shown in the cart totals before checkout. And I couldn’t find an answer on the site to the simple question I had: Is it $3.95 per card or per order?
Card terms not explained: There is lots of confusion in the gift card market about expiration dates, monthly fees and such. In the traditional plastic gift-card area, AmEx does virtually nothing to help users understand what they are buying; however, it’s new virtual gift card is explained well.
Lack of direct customer service: When navigating to the site through organic search, there is no way to get a quick question answered via live chat or email. Users must follow the Contact Us link in the upper right to find contact info.
Obtrusive banners: The banner section (in upper left) is too large for a focused microsite and distracts from the task at hand. And one of the three is way off topic, touting an AmEx award from PayBefore for the “Best Web Sales Channel.” That has absolutely zero interest to buyers and is one of the odder banner ads I’ve ever seen run on a major financial website (although I expect AmEx tested it and found some sales lift).
Clunky checkout process: The form-design itself is adequate, but is missing a few features such as an immediate error message if you type in a dollar amount that does not work. I also found myself clicking Continue at the bottom of the page which won’t work until you first press Add to Cart.
Slow website: I tested the site several times over a two-day period and consistently had trouble completing an order. Without more research, I don’t know if it’s an AmEx issue or just unfortunate timing on my part; in either case, it was pretty frustrating.
Too many navigation options: The top of the gift card page contains AmEx’s normal page navigation options: My Account | Cards | Travel | Rewards | Business
While those are helpful for cardholders looking to access other services, they distract from the task at hand, selecting a gift card(s).
Boring gift card email (screenshot #3): The email went out right away and there was nothing technically wrong with it. But I would have expected a little more excitement and design pizzazz. After all, it’s not every day that someone sends you real money. Also, I was really surprised that the email did not contain the amount of the gift card or the personal message that I composed. That info eventually shows up during the activation process.
Bizarre activation screen using Google Chrome for PC (screenshot 4): At first the page came up with a congratulations message, and an error message, even though I hadn’t completed the authentication step of entering the captcha info. However, after the page fully loaded, all the extraneous messages disappeared. Also, it looked fine on Chrome on my Mac (I didn’t test other browsers).
Virtual card itself is a “low-tech” PDF (screenshot 5): I’m not sure what I was expecting at the end of the process, but having a PDF version of my virtual gift card seems anti-climactic. And the PDF popup (again in Chrome) doesn’t have the usual save/print function along the top, so initially I was stuck as to how I would remember the card info to actually use it. By accident, I found that if I moved my mouse over the lower right part of the popup, that the print/save functions all of a sudden appeared as floating controls. It would be a whole lot better for the user if the card info was simply contained in the original email or if you could at least email the info to yourself after activation. I think a lot of these cards are going to end up lost as PDF files on the hard drive, the modern equivalent of the old paper travelers cheque being socked away in a drawer for decades.
Mobile site was unusable (unless logged in): On the online site, there’s a link promoting mobile ordering of gift cards by navigating to <americanexpress.com/gift> on their phone. I manually entered that URL in my iPhone 4 and was taken to a site dominated by a login screen (screenshot 6). There is a link to gift cards below the fold, but pressing it just reloaded the same page (evidently you have to log in first). This was a total mobile fail.

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1. American Express Gift Card landing page <americanexpress.com/gift-cards> (8 Sept. 2011)

2. Personalized photo gift card order form
Note: Shipping fees are disclosed at the bottom, and the purchase fee pops up after you select a dollar amount.

3. Recipient email notification they’ve received an eGift Card

4. Activation process starts with a bizarre screen that eventually renders correctly, but not before thoroughly confusing the user
Note: Eventually the lower half of this screen disappeared and only the top activation portion remained

5. The virtual card is downloaded as a PDF which can be printed or saved by the recipient

6. The American Express “Gift Card site” as seen through an iPhone 4

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Finovate Blog

Author: Jim Bruene

Capital One Pays to Play in Zynga’s Virtual Worlds

PG&E’s Convenient Mobile Bill Payment App

FinovateFall 2011 Best of Show Winners Named

Finovate Fall 2011 Best of Show Winners Named

Finovate Fall Kicks Off Tuesday, Sep. 20

Finovate Fall 2011 Kicks Off Tuesday, Sep. 20

Design: BillShrink Uses Splash Page to Introduce New Corporate Website and Truaxis Name

Simplifying Product Search: PickHealthInsurance.com Delivers Relevant, Clean Results in Seconds

Launching: Cake Health is a New PFM for Healthcare

Launching: Openbucks Gift Card Payment Network

Heated Tech Frenzy During Next Two Weeks

Reviewed: The American Express Gift Card Store and its New eGift Card Option