Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in New York's financial district to mark the first anniversary of the movement, their presence contained by metal barriers and riot-clad police forming human walls. The current activities, dubbed a “roving carnival of resistance” include “nonviolent civil disobedience” as well as events planned in at least 15 other cities including Asheville, North Carolina, San Francisco and Hilo, Hawaii. 

Chants of "All day, all week, Occupy Wall Street" and "We got sold out, banks got bailed out," greeted Wall Street workers arriving at their offices, echoes of the original goal of the protest to generate "a swirl of mobile occupations of corporate lobbies and intersections," as stated on the Occupy website for the Sept. 15-17 anniversary events, promoted on Twitter with the hashtags #S15, #S16 and #S17.Continue reading...

Utah-headquartered Ally Bank today released the first two commercials in its new branding campaign. Under the umbrella of "Stages," the spots play up its customer-first focus — customers take center stage, highlighting human interaction over automation — with a new tagline, "Your money needs an ally." More details are in the press release, and check out the spots, which were filmed in on the stage of the historic Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, below.Continue reading...

As the "who knew what when" recriminations and lawsuits fly about in the wake of the botched Facebook IPO, the murmurs on Wall Street have been that Facebook could be (according to the word on the street picked up by Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg) mulling over having the social media giant listed on NYSE instead.

Facebook shares have fallen more than 15% from the $38 IPO price to a close of $32 yesterday and the NYSE could reap the benefits in wooing tech companies from NASDAQ — including the house that Zuckerberg built. “Switching exchanges so soon after an IPO would be highly unusual," said Morningstar analyst Gaston Ceron, noting a very small number of companies switch exchanges. "It would sound like a very unusual development if they were to switch so quickly, but then again this is an unusual IPO."

While NYSE told Reuters that no such talks are underway, any such move wouldn't be entirely unprecedented. Viacom switched exchanges in November and Texas Instruments switched last week, in just two examples. That's why, according to CNBC, the CEO of NASDAQ reportedly sent a letter to clients apologizing for the Facebook IPO glitches as part of a damage control campaign to reassure current and potential clients.Continue reading...

In the lead-up to its 200th anniversary on June 12th, Citi's bicentennial campaign celebrates such milestones as helping fund the Panama Canal in 1904.Continue reading...

The vast majority of wealth managers and private banks are dealing quite “clumsily” with social media according to a recent study of 50 leading private banks and wealth management firms by Swiss consulting firm assetinum.com.

“Amateurish” social media strategies, “hibernation” on Facebook and “tokenism attitudes” towards Twitter and YouTube are abundant.

Of the institutions assessed on a 100-point scale, the average score was 43 points. Twenty-seven of the firms did not reach half the maximum points in the Facebook category; 25 fell short in the website and mobile category; 25 scored less than half in the Twitter assessment, and for YouTube and LinkedIn the scores were 29 and 21.

While 42 out of 50 banks have Twitter accounts, just 26 are active in response to posts and only 13 posted content about wealth management. Nineteen banks have blogs with only six of those interacting proactively with consumers.Continue reading...

A little bit Kickstarter and Pepsi Refresh Project but with a layer of ‘savvy mentors’ and backing by Britain's Barclays Bank (with media help by Channel 4), The Stake is a competition with a £100,000 reward for ideas that get the most support from the public. It's open to youths living in the U.K. (age 16-21) who have a fantastic idea and a smart plan for how to spend that £100,000.

The ideas could be "anything, from the heart warming to the hilarious, whether it’s a streetwear start-up, a new school skate ramp or a major charitable donation." Applicants can apply at TheStake.co.uk or on Facebook, where users can pitch or back their ideas. What makes it fun and engaging: by completing challenges along the way, they can increase the number of voting stakes out of a possible total of six.

According to Channel 4's press release, the peer-to-peer game with the big jackpot "aims to show the UK's young people that business and social enterprise can be creative, fun, challenging and that good ideas and passion can be rewarded."Continue reading...

Pro golfers Ernie Els, Luke Donald, Louis Oosthuizen, and a few other of the world’s best will tee up at the Royal Brand of Canada Canadian Open this week as the sponsor continues its efforts to move from being into being a more international brand.

"They've got to be five-star events, which is why we've got to go over, put the charter on and make sure the players come," said Jim Little, RBC's chief brand and communications officer, according to the Vancouver Sun. Little was just at the recently completed British Open so he could shepherd such players onto a charter plane and be sure they showed up in Canada to get coverage by America’s CBS and Canada’s Global TV.

RBC, the official bank of the PGA, “aims to have a prominent charity component and a full range of participatory events to host some 3,000 clients” at the event, the Sun reports. All of this effort is because the RBC “has hung its hopes on golf” and its sponsorship of the Olympics to help it become a known brand across the globe, the Sun reports. The golf audience is "right in the wheelhouse of our marketing focus," Little points out to the paper.Continue reading...

Banks aren’t generally known for frisky, hilarious advertising — after all, they're taking care of commercial and consumer finances — but the National Australian Bank broke down all the walls earlier this year in an effort to draw extra attention to it. And it has apparently worked. 

NAB's 2010 research showed that 50% of Australians who responded had, at some point or another, broken up up on or near Valentine’s Day. Inspired, the bank duly hired 60 couples across the country to publicly break up on Valentine’s Day and post about it online as part of a social-media effort showcasing NAB’s “breakup” with other banks.Continue reading...