'No-strings-attached' gifts used by KeyBank to reward, retain top commercial customers.

• Position: KeyBank Corp.

KeyBank, Cleveland, achieved a success with a recent communications program designed to reward and retain top clients of the bank's commercial banking division. The campaign, themed "The Fine Art of Appreciation," was designed to illustrate how much the bank valued its top clients.

In early 2004, overall satisfaction scores for the bank's commercial banking clients were starting to decline. Although attrition was not an issue, the bank still needed to find a way to make top-tier clients feel rewarded for their ongoing business and acknowledge their value as top customers.

The bank's commercial banking division delivers commercial loans, equipment leases, cash management depository and private banking services to companies with annual revenues of $10 million to $500 million.

The bank sent three mailings to each of 750 decision-makers at mainly privately held companies, each with $10 million to $250 million in annual sales. The three mailings consisted of:

* A store gift certificate.

* A charity donation offer.

* A restaurant guide.

These gifts were sent "just because" and were not used as a means of attempting to promote the bank or sell a new product. These unexpected tokens of appreciation were intended as no-strings-attached gifts recognizing the customers' value.

The mailings were targeted to customers over a two-to-six month period based on the seasonality of...