Keytrade Bank ran a "Members Get Members" marketing campaign between April and May 2008 to acquire new customers through word-of-mouth recommendations from existing customers. The campaign offered existing customers €20 rewards for each new customer they referred who opened an account. Over 2,000 existing customers invited over 9,000 friends, resulting in 1,715 new customers, far exceeding the campaign's goal of 500 and demonstrating the effectiveness of viral marketing through customer referrals. Press coverage and online buzz further amplified the campaign's success in acquiring new customers at a cost far below industry standards.

1. Keytrade Bank
“Members Get Members” Campaign
Thibault de Barsy
Marketing & Sales Director
Keytrade Bank

2. About Keytrade Bank
• Founded in 1997 as the first 100% online bank in Belgium
• Today, subsidiary of Groupe Crédit Agricole
• Present in Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland
• 75.000 clients on the Belgian market
• Aggressive growth during the last two years

3. Rationale for MGM (Members Get Members)
• Starting point : a very high customer satisfaction
(according to a competitor’s study)
• Your customer is your best ambassador
• Prospects’ profile = customers’ profile = friends of your
customers
• MGM = a catalyst

4. Campaign Briefing
• Customer acquisition campaign: attracting new customers
on recommendation of existing ones (« members get
members » system)
• We banned mass media of any sort: pure « word of
mouse » campaign (no TV, no radio, no print ad)
• Primary objective: thresold of 500 new customers for
Keytrade Bank
• Time period: 15/04/08 – 27/05/08

5. How it worked (1)
• Core principle: member sponsorship (« parrainage » /
« peterschapsactie »)
• As a Keytrade Bank customer, you were prompted to invite
your friends and relatives to open a bank account at
Keytrade Bank
• For every new person becoming a Keytrade Bank
customer, you and your friend received 20 euro as reward
on your respective Keytrade Bank accounts (win-win deal).
• The more new members you sponsored, the more money
you cashed in from Keytrade Bank.

6. How it worked (2)
• Activation of Keytrade Bank customers through 2 channels:
* Banner in your private account on KeytradeBank.com
* E-mail sent to Keytrade Bank customers database
(61.400 contacts)
• All the trafic was driven to a micro-website where you could send a
message to your friends and relatives with a « send to a friend »
form
• Possibility to personalize some parts of the message (« Dear X,
… ») to increase the impact
• Each new client was identified by a unique promo-code contained in
the e-mail template

10. P.R. 2.0 approach (1)
• Press release on early results sent out one week before the
end of the campaign
• Generated media coverage (La Dernière Heure, De Morgen)
and some valuable buzz in the blogosphere
• The volume of search on “Keytrade Bank” also increased on
Google (see next slide)
• The “word of mouth” also included classifieds, messages in
forums and even Google Adwords from Keytrade Bank
customers searching for people to sponsor
→ fed the viral effect and attract even more members

20. P.R. 2.0 approach (2)
“I registered eight blog
readers and got 160 euro.
Tell it to the world: I’m now
a fan of Keytrade Bank”
PWNT blog

21. Results
So, did we meet our objectives?
• 2.258 customers invited 9.157 friends (average of 4 friends per
existing customers who participated to this campaign)
• 1.715 new customers acquired by Keytrade Bank
= conversion rate of 18,6%
= + 243% above initial expectations !
• Only 6% of them had the quot;take the money and runquot; attitude (i.e.
retrieved their 20 euro and dropped their new bank accounts)
• Total acquisition cost of each new customer : 54 euro (roughly
100% cheaper than the standard in the banking sector)

22. Thank you!
Any question?
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