• by Aaron Baar , December 17, 2014

Think about how much $30,000 spent over 24 hours can do for a community-building initiative. Now multiply it by 24, and you get a sense of the work TD Bank has been doing over the past month.

Via a new marketing initiative, “Make Today Matter,” the North American bank helps its customers achieve good deeds in the hopes of inspiring others to make a difference. Included among the videos are depictions of customers being surprised with a handicapped-accessible renovation, providing new equipment for a little league football team and an inspirational gala for teen girls in foster care.

“We’ve always tried to find ways of connecting more on a more human level,” Vinoo Vijay, chief marketing officer for TD Bank, tells Marketing Daily. “We’re continuing to look for ways to make our channels more human in experience.”

Through the campaign, TD Bank managers invited customers to give their input on what they would do to improve their communities under the guise of a videotaped “survey,” ViJay says. The bank then gave them $30,000 to make that dream happen in the next 24 hours. The bank spread the word by using the hashtag, #MakeTodayMatter.

The videos, which have been rolling out daily since Nov. 25, have registered 5 million views, and Vijay says he could see that number doubling. “We think it can get 10 million views,” Vijay says. “We have taken great pride in how it has helped the people in the films.”

The “Make Today Matter” initiative follows a similar program this summer that equipped its ATM’s into “Automatic Thanking Machines,” offering special prizes to customers based on their lives. What form future initiatives that platform might take in the future remains to be seen.

“We continue to look for ways to be more relevant in the communities we serve,” Vijay says. “One of our goals is to take this idea and build on it.”