Imagine a place with no direct mail. No credit card offers, coupon books, catalogs, or "open immediately" come-ons. No post cards advertising retail sales, no newsletters, no "best customer" offers, no even reminder notices. For some consumers this might seem like an ideal world, but for many marketers it would be a source of frustration. Surprisingly, this place actually exists. It's called Kuwait.

Kuwait has no residential postal system. The country has P.O. boxes and a private courier system, but no way for companies to communicate with customers or potential customers by mail. To achieve get around the hurdles this system (or lack thereof) causes, financial services firm Gulf Bank uses an innovative ATM messaging system that allows it to connect with customers and prospects, one to one.

"It seems like a no-brainer to talk to customers through the ATM, but no one here was doing it," says Mark Magnacca, Gulf Bank's vice president of marketing. "The cost to communicate is nearly zero, and the investment is providing a great return for us."

Because Gulf Bank owns the largest share of ATMs in Kuwait, the company also talks to its competitors' customers when they use the machines. When customers begin a transaction, the software developed by NCR searches the bank's customer database to see if they're eligible for a credit card, loan, or other prequalified promotions. The offer is displayed, and customers use the four buttons found on a typical ATM to choose whether they want to learn more.

"We're able to go a little deeper than a simple yes/no, to pass along as detailed information as we can to our sales team," Magnacca says. "We track our conversions, as well as consumer preferences and overall usage."

Since implementing the program in 2007 surveys show that customer preference for using the ATM to learn about new products or services has increased threefold. The percentage of offers that time-out (after 10 seconds) has decreased from 35 percent last year to only 25 percent so far this year, which Magnacca says shows the strategy is gaining traction.

Recently, Gulf Bank held a contest offering the winner 1 million KWD (approximately 3.5 million dollars). When the bank drew the winner's name, it was unable to reach him by telephone or email. Magnacca says the company decided to put a message "in the queue" for that particular customer the next time he showed up at an ATM. Sure enough, soon after the winner got the message and then visited one of the bank's branches to claim his prize.

"We're able to create messaging for any group of customers, from everyone in a certain demographic all the way down to one person," Magnacca says. "It's much more targeted than any direct mail campaign could be."

Gulf Bank has recently implemented a similar promotion system on its website, using online banking to show customers what added services they qualify for. Tying the website to the ATMs with similar messaging also lets the bank track customer preferences and identify them as users of each channel. Ultimately, he says, both options are still new to customers and the user base is growing.

"We're still in the educational phase," Magnacca says. "Many of our customers still regularly visit branches and speak to tellers, but we're always upgrading to offer them more options."