Ally Bank Awards New Years Eve 2020 Babies, Tries New Marketing Approach

Ally Bank decided that babies born on the last day of 2020 could use an extra head start to life. The bank is giving away $250 online savings accounts to all children born before midnight on Thursday of last week.

A press release stated, “There will always be something special about the babies of 2020. You’ve entered our world at a seminal moment, and seminal moments come with their own circumstances. Your family might be feeling the anxiety and loss that have hit so many this year. But in the midst of that, you’ve brought them joy.”

The initiative may sound like a lot of money, but it is a rather innovative way to use a marketing budget. With social media picking up the opportunity for free money for a limited number of parents to follow through on, the reach may end up being greater than paid media. The press release focused on savings tables for would be investors to made aware of basic metrics such as compounding interest.

If you were blessed enough to have given birth to a baby that day, you still have plenty of time to cash in on your infant’s winnings. The application deadline is July 31, 2021 and you will need your baby’s social security number and birth certificate to open up an account. The money is the child’s money and cannot be taken out by the parents or legal guardian thus keeping with the theme of long terms savings.

The bank even pointed out that these little ones were conceived at the beginning of the pandemic. Perhaps the mothers are being rewarded as well for a particularly anxious environment throughout 2020. Ally Bank, which is a growing internet bank, is focusing on future savers. Parents are not obligated to open up separate accounts with Ally, but the bank likely foresees the opportunity to grow its business.

The initiative has a great purpose in that only the wealthiest Americans tend to think about saving for a child’s future beyond college education and this will likely cast a wider net for the retail bank.