A Silly Bank

A month overseas gives you a nice clear head. A fresh perspective. Even a new tolerance of those things which were threatening to make you explode because you needed that holiday so much.
So when I got back and surveyed my inbox, even though there were over 1000 emails to deal with of which at least 30% were spam (thank you our wonderful anti-spam laws for keeping it below 50%) I did not mind.

Jet lag is a funny thing. For the first three night I found myself at my desk by 3.00 am. Actually, it’s a great time of day to work.

Anyway, as I was sitting there, happily considering opportunities to enhance my length, or give my bank account details to a range of generous Nigerians, I was surprised to receive a marketing email from my bank. At 3.00 am. At first I assumed it was a con, some spammer stealing their identity, but closer inspection revealed it to be the real thing. I won’t tell you which bank it was, except to say I consider them A Silly Bank. The same bank, by coincidence, that recently told me they did not need an email agency to show them the best way to use email to market their services, as they had plenty of expertise in-house.

I have to say, just for a few moments, it swept away all the good from my break, and made me mad. Not just because they should have employed our services, but because this sort of irresponsible and ignorant email marketing breeds mistrust amongst the general public.

For email to prosper as a marketing channel, big players need to get it right, and A Silly Bank sending out emails at 3 in the morning is wrong.