Bank of Ireland Teams With Snapchat For New Rewards Program

Bank of Ireland is using social media platform Snapchat in an effort to reach young customers.

According to a report by The Irish Times, Bank of Ireland has become the first bank to use Snapchat, launching its 2016 FeelFree student reward program with Snapchat star James Kavanagh and model Thalia Heffernan. During the next few weeks, the two will share hacks and tips geared toward saving students money. The program gives students who sign up for a new third-level account up to €100 worth of rewards. Some of the rewards include movie tickets, vouchers for pizza, surfing lessons and beauty treatments. Kavanagh will visit the University of Limerick and Trinity College Dublin to market the new rewards program.

“We want to give back to students throughout the year by rewarding them for being loyal with a huge choice of rewards … things they have told us that they want, that are fun and relevant and will make their lives easier,” said Laura Lynch, head of youth banking at Bank of Ireland. “We are also looking forward to using our new Snapchat channel to communicate with our student customers and share helpful tips with them on a range of topics and give them behind-the-scenes access. We are delighted to have Snapchat star James Kavanagh on board to help us launch our latest platform.”

FeelFree will be available from October until May 2017, with the range of rewards changing each quarter. Consumers who complete the tasks within a set period get a code from the bank for the rewards. The report noted Bank of Ireland chose to work with Snapchat to promote the brand to younger customers.

The move on the part of Bank of Ireland comes as consumer spending among younger people is picking up. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, index after index is showing a similar result: Among younger consumers, confidence is back at pre-recession levels, while, for older consumers (55 and up), optimism has not returned and has actually taken a beating this year numbers-wise.