A new spin on an old toaster

Promises of good interest rates, friendly service and convenient branches may be enough to entice most people to open a checking account at their local bank.

But others may need something else to sweeten the deal . . . say, a lava lamp.

Yes, the days of free toasters may be gone, but the spirit of gifts from your banker lives on.

Those lava lamps? Salt Lake-based Zions Bank was giving them away this year to attract college students as customers.

"Every year we do a student campaign for college kids, so we always do a giveaway with that, because as we do research, college kids love to get something," said Rob Brough, Zions Bank's senior vice president of public relations. "This year the giveaway was a lava lamp. Last year it was an inflatable chair. They are just things we think are attractive to that segment."

Brough said he is not sure how many lava lamps are now gracing the state's dorm rooms thanks to Zions, but he thinks it was a successful campaign.

And Zions is not alone. As it turns out, one of the hottest new bank marketing trends is also one of its oldest: the giveaway. Over the past year, banks have been reviving the almost-passe practice of giving out freebies to new customers who sign up for checking accounts or other services.

But instead of the once-standard toaster or coffee maker, banks have gotten more creative, handing out Pyrex dishes, collapsible coolers, folding camp chairs, jumper cables or just plain old cash.

"It's the toaster with a new spin," said Brenda Marlin, associate director of the ABAMarketing Network, an affiliate of the American Bankers Association trade group based in Washington, D.C. "It's a little more customized for our time."

Freebie campaigns flourished in the 1970s and 1980s before falling away as banks began touting their ATM networks, Web sites and other high-tech offerings.

But the American Bankers Association said larger banks, flush with better marketing data about who their customers are and what will bring more of them into a branch, are bringing the practice back.

The association, in its most recent marketing survey, said larger banks reported spending more in 2001 on promotional giveaways than they had two years earlier, though smaller banks said they had spent less.

Freebies make up about 39 percent of an average bank's sales-promotion spending, according to the ABA. In fact, they were the single largest expense, ahead of things such as banners and brochures.

And bankers who use them said they work.