• by April 13, 2005

I WANT MY RSVP - It's been a while since we've received a phone call from Larry Divney. In fact, it's been never. So we were somewhat surprised when we retrieved our voice mail messages Wednesday and heard, "Hey, it's Larry Divney."

At first we thought the MTV sales chief might be inviting us out to one of those "off-the-record" journalist schmooze luncheons he's famous for, in which he reveals all sorts of revealing Viacom tidbits that ingratiate him to journalists industry-wide.

No, as it turns out, it was simply an automated reminder call to reply to MTV's upfront invitation.

"If you haven't RSVP-ed for the MTV Networks upfront you need to do so by April 14," continued the robo-Div. "I'm very excited about the lineup this year. We've got some of the biggest stars out there. We've got [telephone bleep sound effect here]. How about that? That's crazy. Who doesn't love all of them? Obviously it's going to be a great show that you don't want to miss. Make sure you RSVP to..." And then the message suddenly cut off.

BANK SHOT -- One of the best-known quotes ever used to describe the practice of targeting has been attributed to bank-robber Will Sutton. Asked why he targeted banks, Sutton is famous for saying, "Because that's where the money is." Apparently, the same principle does not apply to targeting bank customers. At least that's what marketing agency Global Advertising Strategies has concluded in a study released this week. Instead of simply targeting consumers who use banking services, the findings recommend banks go after "unbanked consumers."

According to the study, entitled "Multicultural Marketing of Financial Service Products and Services to Unbanked Americans," unbanked Americans - typically immigrants, ethnic minorities, youths, widows, divorcees without credit histories in their own names, and people who have filed for bankruptcy or are re-building their credit-worthiness - comprise more than 13 percent of the 105 million households in the United States.

Instead of concentrating their marketing efforts on their traditional customer base, the report projects that spending by unbanked Americans on financial products is expected to increase by 94 percent in the next four years.

"For years, banks have misunderstood and ignored the unbanked," said Alex Romanovich, executive vice president of GAS. "Just look at how they've continued to use traditional credit-scoring models with this community, which is absolutely wrong since the approach isn't applicable to people who don't have a credit history and automatically makes them ineligible for standard credit card products. It's no wonder these people have turned to alternative financial service providers such as check-cashing and money transfer outlets."

In other words, maybe banks should be targeting where the money isn't necessarily at.