Ally Bank Wins Award for Online Consumer Engagement

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Oct 28, 2011, 11:15 ET

MIDVALE, Utah, Oct. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Bank has won a Forrester Groundswell Award for the innovative use of real-time online content creation and social media to engage consumers. The accolade recognizes the Bank's interaction with consumers via social media on Twitter, Facebook and its Straight Talk blog.

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Ally Bank won the Forrester Groundswell Award in the category of Business to Consumer North America: Talking. Ally Bank uses online monitoring to identify opportunities to connect quickly and directly with consumers. This allows Ally to create content for its social media outlets that increase awareness of the Bank and invite consumers to engage in dialogue with the bank.

"We put our customers at the center of everything we do -- whether it is product development, the services we offer or the ways we engage with consumers, like Twitter, Facebook and our blog," said Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer of Ally Financial.

Ally's approach to social media content development and audience engagement has returned significant results to date. Ally Bank has had more than 7,000 social conversations with consumers on Facebook, Twitter and the Straight Talk blog in 2011 and mentions of Ally Bank in social media have increased by 38 percent.

One example of how Ally Bank has engaged with customers is "Idea Share," which is a Facebook application that invites consumers to discuss how to create a better banking experience.

"The Forrester Groundswell Awards recognize excellence in achieving business and organizational goals with social technology applications," said Josh Bernoff, senior vice president, idea development at Forrester and co-author of Groundswell and Empowered. "We received more than 200 entries from around the world and selected the winners based on the most impressive results."

Ally Bank and its global digital marketing agency iCrossing jointly won the Forrester Groundswell Award.

About Ally Bank

Ally Bank is a direct bank in the U.S. that offers a straightforward approach to banking with no minimum deposit required to open an account, no monthly maintenance fees and 24/7 live customer service. A subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc., the bank offers online savings, interest checking, money market accounts, certificates of deposit with terms ranging from three months to five years and IRA Plans and products. Follow us on Twitter @allybank or at facebook.com/allybank. Member FDIC. For more information, visit the Ally media site at http://media.ally.com.

Contact:
Beth Coggins
313-656-6964
[email protected]

SOURCE Ally Financial