The Story

I saw a great movie this weekend at Cinema 21. It was a silent picture by Canadian art-house auteur Guy Maddin. Maddin is a contemporary filmmaker who makes silent black and white movies on super-8 film. Not an easy pill to swallow for our spoiled little attention spans that crave lots of action, scenery, dialogue and hi-def picture quality. I’ve seen several of his movies before as they’ve been released in theaters and the attendance has always been sparse.

Not this weekend. This weekend I had to stand in a line that went well outside the theater and around the block to get into Maddin’s recent creation. And at $25 a ticket, I was pretty impressed that so many Portlanders dished out that kind of money to get in when so many of his previous films have gone unnoticed.

The difference that made these folks stand in line is that Maddin’s most recent film is a multi-sensory filmgoing experience. It’s still a grainy silent black and white film, but this time there is a live symphony with conductor and all. There are live celebrity narrators that differ from city to city. And, (my favorite part) live foley artists that create sound effects to accompany the film. I sat very close to the front so I could see very clearly what 3 sound artists dressed in white lab coats where doing. Heads of cabbage where chopped with knives, buckets of water were sloshed around, rubber chickens were squeezed.

The whole experience was a feast for the senses. More importantly, as an audience member I felt special to witness all the hard work that went into creating the sound design.

Out of all the bank marketing strategies out there, here’s one that actually works: prove to your customers that they are special. Banks should be able to make customers feel like hoops are being jumped through to provide them with the best banking experience. If you can see the hard work that is being put into your satisfaction as a customer, the next step is that you will trust that institution with your money. And that’s an experience worth waiting in line for.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Bank Branding, Credit Union Branding, Bank Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Branding, Credit Union Marketing, Multisensory Marketing and 5 Senses Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.