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Research

Digital IQ INDEX®

Financial Services

The L2 Digital IQ Index® Financial Services measures the digital competence of 27 retail banks and credit card issuers. Authored by L2 in partnership with leading media agency PHD Network, the Index evaluates the digital efforts of Financial Services brands across four dimensions: Site, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Mobile. Each brand was scored against more than 350 qualitative and quantitative data points and assigned a Digital IQ ranking of Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble.

“Innovation in digital and mobile is the new battlefield where market share will be won or lost. The primary levers in the Financial Services industry over the past 20 years have been massive broadcast media spend and a land grab for retail bank real estate. However, a focus on cost-cutting driven by the financial crisis, coupled with an increasingly digital consumer, is reshaping the landscape.” —Scott Galloway

Key Findings

The industry’s strong scores are largely the result of substantial investments in mobile innovation. The companies’ average mobile scores were two to three times higher than those in most consumer industries. Eighty-two percent of brands in the study have a mobile presence.

Social sharing is a missed opportunity. Fewer than one-third of Financial Services websites offer any form of social sharing around financial products or site content, and only 22 percent incorporate Facebook open graph technology.

Twitter is the new Teller. Of the 68 percent using Twitter, two-thirds provide real-time customer service through the micro-blogging platform.

Financial Services brands are not as “liked” as those of other consumer industries. Only 28 percent of brands in the study maintain an overall brand Facebook page. Instead, many build pages around individual marketing and sponsorship programs. As a result, the industry trails others in its overall number of “likes”, averaging just 92,000 “likes” per brand page versus 553,000 and 374,000 for luxury and beauty brands, respectively.

American Express and Bank of America were the top-ranked brands, and the only two brands in the study to earn Genius-level Digital IQ scores. The top 10-ranked brands are: