Bank’s ‘Automated Thanking Machine’ Shocks Customers With Heartwarming Gifts

Last December, Canada’s WestJet brought a Christmas Miracle to a planeload of its passengers. Before boarding, passengers answered questions and when they landed, they were presented with the item they wished for as a Christmas gift: everything from new underwear to a new flat screen TV. The video was viewed over 36 million times.

TD Canada Bank has a big act to follow but it’s doing an admirable job, if on a smaller scale. The bank, with help from Diamond Integrated Marketing and Leo Burnett, tricked out ATMs in a few of its branches, turning them into Automated Thanking Machines to dole out gifts based on questions it asked the customers.

A mother was given $1,000 for each of her kids to start a college fund. That same mother, who said she was never able to take her kids to Disney, was given a trip to Disney. A Toronto Blue Jays fan was given the chance to throw out the first pitch at a game…by Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista who surprised the man in the bank. And in a very heartwarming move, the bank gave a mother two plane tickets to Trinidad so she could go see her daughter who is suffering from cancer.

Just over a dozen people enjoyed the Automated Thanking Machine experience, but a video documenting the happenings has spread it much further.

Mike Jobin, the man who received a visit from Bautista, said, “I can’t believe TD did this — it’s something that I’ll never forget. We’re a real baseball family and making the first pitch at a Blue Jays game was at the top of my bucket list. Let’s just say that I had goosebumps the whole time.”

Of the similarities between the WestJet and TD Canada campaign, a bank spokesperson said, “The goal behind the campaign was to thank our incredible customers. We created the concept to provide meaningful thank you surprises to customers and drew inspiration from our unique customer service approach — to strive for legendary experiences. We were focused on developing surprising ways to thank our customer, and less so on what others have done.”

The ATM stunt is part of the bank’s #TDThanksYou campaign which, on July 25, included giving a green envelope filled with $20 to each of its customers at 1,100 bank locations as well as $20 deposits to all online customers — 30,000 gifts in all. Since launch on July 24, the video has been viewed 5.2 million times.

Here’s a 24 hour trending look at #TDThanksYou tweets:

And the stunt garnered some nice coverage on NBC Nightly News:

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Steve Hall

Steve Hall is a marketing professional, publisher, writer, community manager, photographer and all-around lover of advertising.