Last updated: 23 December 2015
Reporting from the last day of #CARTES yesterday. Personalized cards (AllAboutMe) have existed for a while but we have seen here at the Paris-based trade show just how funky and useful these can be. While there’s a lot of buzz around mobile NFC – just watch our video on it here – your credit and debit cards are still among the most valuable items of your wallet. Your mobile might be the most useful and used device, but credit and debit cards are surely up there along with your house and car keys.
So, with that in mind, let’s consider the following. We all personalize our mobiles with background pictures, our laptop desktop with our holiday snaps, not to mention making Facebook as much about our personal interests as feasible. How come the credit and debit card, the device that fits into any wallet or back pocket and accompanies us on most trips outside the home, isn’t personalized?
Well, it could be and many banks are already starting to encourage this. Check here to see if your bank is among those that are harnessing our creativity, working with Serverside. The way it works is simple: you can either upload an image from the bank’s own database (as you might choose a generic image for your desktop background), or you can import one from Facebook or your own image bank. From the bank’s perspective it’s a simple marketing tool to foster customer loyalty and also helps them tap into a younger demographic, namely the iGeneration of sharers. For the customer, they can feature their pet, children or other half on their card, or demonstrate their photography skills to showcase to friends, colleagues and when making purchases. It’s been proven to drive higher usage of the cards for transactions, creating a stronger bond between the customer and the bank, and several banks are running competitions where users can vote on the best photo or artwork generated by a customer, who then receives the printing of the image for free.
Before you get carried away considering how you might add a David Bailey photo to your credit card or feature your favorite football team such as Manchester United, checks are carried out to ensure copyright isn’t infringed upon, illegal images aren’t used and to ensure the highest quality.
Why not vote for some of the most creative images or personalize your transport and retail loyalty cards. The options are endless – give it a go here.
