How Banks are Reinventing Customer Experience to Meet the Demands of the Digital Consumer
The Convergence of Connected TV/OTT and Digital Banking Audiences
Author: Peter Jones, Head of Local Sales, Premion.
Touchless, contactless, remote and digital. These behaviors are becoming ingrained in almost all consumer daily activities – and many financial institutions and banks are leading the charge with this digital-first mindset.
In times of uncertainty, consumers are looking for timely financial advice and solutions regarding changing circumstances, and banks that show they genuinely care by offering support with waived fees, delayed payment options, or funding assistance for small businesses, will build long-term customer loyalty. As a guardianship of trust, banks have an opportunity to reinvent themselves to better understand the way consumers expect their financial institution to support their financial needs through innovation, digital delivery of products and services and, more importantly, improved customer experience.
Of late, consumers have embraced digital banking behaviors. According to the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Direct Banking Satisfaction Study, only 46% of consumers will go back to “banking as usual.” The biggest change will be in the increased use of mobile banking (20%), increased use of online banking (17%), and decreased use of branches (10%).
Beyond online platforms and mobile apps, consumers and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are seeking financial partners that can deliver tools with greater degrees of efficiency, personalization and guidance related to specific requests. For instance, some banks are highlighting the benefits of contactless voice banking and, for more complex topics or transactions, they’re utilizing live chat or video to humanize digital engagement. Other recent digital capabilities include remote agent assists, text chats, and interactive teller machines that can be accessed from cars.
With the acceleration of streaming TV viewing, financial services advertisers are capitalizing on the significant opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience with connected TV (CTV) / OTT advertising.
With eMarketer forecasting that there are 105M OTT-enabled U.S. households serving over 225M OTT users this year1, OTT is now a vital part of the media mix for brands and advertisers on both a local and national level. Locally, OTT ad spend is forecasted to reach nearly $1B in 20202, and nationally, that number soars to $3.7B3. Speaking directly to the banking and finance sector, OTT ad spend is expected to reach $75.4M2 in 2020, according to BIA.
And, much like today’s banking consumer that is increasingly shifting to digital, the CTV/OTT consumer is digitally-savvy, and now makes up a wide home-bound consumer base. According to a recent MRI-Simmons study, U.S OTT viewers are 16% more likely than the average person to choose their primary bank because of the bank’s online services4. The report found that nearly 50% of OTT viewers pay their bills online (96 million adults) and just over 30% use their mobile phones to pay their bills (61 million adults)4.
CTV/OTT advertising provides financial services brands with the precision of digital in targeting, personalization, attribution and performance capabilities with the big screen viewing experience of linear television. Furthermore, the addressability in CTV/OTT allows advertisers to zero in on specific audience segments on a home-by-home basis.
Financial institutions and banks need a trusted CTV/OTT advertising partner that can execute locally in reaching the right consumers at the household-level, track conversion and, reduce wasted impressions.
To dig deeper, click here for The Premion Advantage: Banking & Finance and the OTT Audience
1 eMarketer, Connected TV Households, August 2020, eMarketer; OTT Video Service Users, August 2020
2 BIA Advisory Services, U.S. Local Advertising Forecast August 2020
3Magna, US Media Landscape, Fall 2020
4MRI-Simmons, Winter 2019 NHCS Adult Study 12-month
