The bank placed a vending machine on the streets of Vancouver and filled it with a bunch of throw-away items, from pieces of puzzles to packets of sugar. Each item came with a note that said, “If you like free stuff, you’re going to love free checking.”

Though none of the items were of any value, people lined up at the machine simply because the items were free.

“I had no idea people would react that much to it,” says David deHaas, associate creative director and art director at Rethink Communications, which came up with the idea. “Even when we were trying to restock it, people were clawing at us to get at the free stuff.”

He says the alternative campaign was an extension of an earlier TV campaign that played on the same "people love free stuff" angle.

“We wanted to bring it to life in a real way, so we thought of doing a free market, or something online like FreeBay,” deHaas says. “In the end a vending machine was one of many ideas, and the client liked it.”

So the agency tracked down a refurbished vending machine, the kind that dispenses items from metal spirals after a letter and number is punched in, and filled it with the useless items.

It was a success on two fronts. Though costing around $1,000 to execute, the campaign got about $20,000 worth of free coverage in the local media, including discussion on local radio and segments on local news. And Coast Capital Savings signed up about 800 new free checking customers as a result.

The campaign was so successful, in fact, that the agency is considering taking the free vending machine out on tour to other markets.