Many or you have many not-so-fond memories of all the promotional items we once gave (still give?) to get customers to open or increase their accounts.

My "favorite" was tulip bulbs! We offered them for new accounts--it was a huge promotion. After a few disappointing months of account openings, the promos began sprouting and our branches smelled like a seed store.

What are other BOLers' "favorites"?

Bonsai Trees. A big truck pulled up to the Office one day and unloaded 30 boxes with each box containing 12 of them. We had no idea what they were for until a customer came in asking for his surprise. Seems the marketing department started a campaign that morning to give a "Surprise" to anyone opening an account with $100.00 or more.

Well they looked awful. Picture the end of a very skinny Pine tree branch about 6" long stuck in a little pot with a small pebble. Unfortunately on the second day the needles started falling off and by the third day they started turning brown. On the fourth day all the larvae hatched and we had a bank full of flies.

Handing the customer a dead stick in a fly infested pot was indeed a "Surprise".

At a former bank we gave away ladies wigs that could be sent back to the vendor to be dyed to match the desired color. We had to get mirrors and hair brushes so people could see how they looked. We had to snip hair samples to send in to match colors. We were constantly asked "How does this one look? How about this one? Which one looks better?" The entire brach staff had migraine headaches for the entire promotion period.

I've seen George Foreman grills, step stools, picnic baskets, First Aid Kits, Car Kits(Jumper cables and such),
the list goes on and on and on!

We still give away toasters! And they are very popular. We always run out of them first.

What year was that???
And what did the men receive? Perhaps some of them were quite pleased with the wig??

This wasn't a "promotional item" per se, but the marketing department of a large bank I worked for came up with the idea to have a drawing for a Jeep. EVERYONE in the world (or maybe it just seemed that way!) recieved scratch-off game pieces in the mail that they had to "scratch" at a branch in front of an employee! The smallest prize they could get was a checkbook cover. We had people lined up out the doors coming in to win the Jeep - and very few were interested in establishing a relationshop with the Bank. They would get furious if we were busy with a customer and could not immediately jump up to help them! That whole promotion was an unbeleivable nightmare!
Leslie

We have been doing "Ice Cream Fridays" every August for the past three years. We have five locations and have been lucky enough to have five Fridays during August in these years.

Every Friday from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm we go to a different location and give out ice cream both in the drive-ups and in the lobby. It is very well received, and we do have some customers who will literally drive across town spending 30 minutes to get their "free" ice cream treat every week.

For Thanksgiving one year a bank gave away live turkeys--just dropped them out of a helicopter--who knew they couldn't fly. Wait, that wasn't a bank, that was an episode of WKRP. Nevermind!

I'm sure some of our CA. brethren will be able to name the bank, but one there used to give out onions. I saw it on a PBS series on growing a business. It was popular. And the guy that ran the bank looked a lot like Al Miller. I asked Al about it before and he swears it wasn't him. Perhaps if it was wine glasses it would have been Al. (Then the question is, would the glasses have been full or empty?)

Luggage was my favorite! I worked in a small branch office and we were required to keep a supply of luggage available. Talk about being ontop of each other. Every morning we drug out the various pieces from our vault and made sure we at least had a walk way to the kitchen and restroom and then at night, we packed up and put them back into the vault. I hope I never sell another piece of luggage!!!!!!

Back when Mt. St.Helens blew her top we were giving away little packs of Mt. St.Helens dust. I still have mine. Why we gave that away is a long, long story. But it was popular.

It was back around 1970, 1) before anyone cared about gender equality, 2) when the point system used to qualify for a consumer loan included more points for being a male than a female, 3) when there were no female officers, managers, or assistant managers and we weren't allowed to open the doors in the morning unless a man was present.

We've come a long way baby!

zaibatsu: Just to complete the reference:

Oh my God, Johnny, they're turkeys!! Johnny, can you get this? Oh, they're plunging to the earth right in front of our eyes! One just went through the windshield of a parked car! Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement! Not since the Hindenberg tragedy has there been anything like this!

Johnny: Les? Are you there? Les isn't there. (composing himself) Thanks for that on-the-spot report, Les, and for those of you who just tuned in, the Pinedale Shopping Mall has just been bombed with live turkeys. Film at eleven.

Ted. I don't know if that has been named as one of the funniest comedy episodes of all time, but it should be. I wonder if TVLand will show it this week in honor of Thanksgiving. See ya!

We actually had a bank that used to give away shotguns to CD customers.

I hope Z is right about 'KRP and TVLand. I grew up in Cincinnati, and 'KRP was can't miss TV every week.

Rock on fellow babies!!!

Mr Carlson: As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly

Andy, I believe it was called University Bank & Trust and they were Walla Walla onions. The gentleman who you are thinking of was formerly the head of the California State Banking Department and I can't remember his name. I'm sure one of my California associates will think of it.

Since Al hasn't piped in... his bank still gives away TV's for a new checking account opened with the suite of services including the Overdraft Line of Credit. Though popular, the logistics, distribution and tracking is a nightmare.

Anybody worked for a bank that offered a car instead of interest on a major deposit?

Many years ago, I stocked my kitchen using this method. I had some cash after my folks passed on, so I opened a CD at one bank, got my toaster. When it matured, I went to another bank and got my crock pot. I split the deposit, went to two other banks and got my electric can opener and a set of pots and pans. I still have some of those things and its 28 years later!

Turkey's can't fly?

It was the funniest thing I have ever seen on TV. For weeks afterwards my wife or I would just repeat that line to one another and break into hysterics.

As for give aways, in the early 1980s a bank in Colorado(?) had a very successful promotion giving away hunting rifles. (They didn't pay any interest on the $10,000 CD that was required, but they would give you a high powered rifle for opening the account.) Remember, rates were much higher and, perhaps, people were a little less nutty then.

Richard, I worked for a bank that had a promotion (around 1970) that offered luxury items like Cadillacs and fur coats in lieu of interest on large, long term CDs. It wasn't wildly successful.

We once (we being a former bank I worked at) offered free cell phones (back when cell phones were the size of toasters) with new accounts. Of course you have to purchase the cell phone service, which costs twice as much if you bring your own phone...Marketing was not our friend that month.

We got even...when people came in and complained about the more expensive cell phone service we gave them the "hot line" for complaints...which was the marketing directors desk

Ahh the good old days!

Apparantly there are banks that still do. Michael Moore's latest movie "Bowling for Columbine" (none of his movies should not be mistaken for journalism) there is a bank that gives away guns. I have not seen the movie, but have seen a scene where he goes into a bank that is giving away rifles right there in the bank.