The new card design service, marketed as 'U-Design' is available on the bank's Visa and MasterCard credit cards and urges cardholders to 'Imagine It. Do It.'

Banco Popular, the largest bank in Puerto Rico and the first to offer a card design program in the country, is using technology provided by card customization specialist, Serverside Group.

Banco Popular is putting a major emphasis on marketing U-Design digitally. Central to the campaign launch was an online card design competition with Sony digital cameras as prizes. Cardholders were urged to put forward their designs and invite friends and family to vote for them. Highly participatory and viral, card design competitions have been proven to greatly improve campaign results.

In a further example of participatory 'Web 2.0' marketing, Banco Popular's card home page contains a Serverside-created interactive mini version of the online card 'designer' that acts as a taster and entices cardholders to proceed to the full blown card design tool. Once there, customers can either upload an image of their own or choose one from a range of image galleries.

The service, which went live in July, is being marketed in two languages, English and Spanish, and the introductory cost per plastic is $4.99.

Adam Elgar, President, Serverside Group, commented: "Banco Popular has created a sleek and stylishly branded card design site that will no doubt go down superbly well with new and existing cardholders. By using a card design competition to launch the new service, it has also shown a real understanding of the power of viral marketing. In our experience, engaging people and enabling them to participate through design competitions and user-generated voting tools is highly viral and greatly improves the overall success of card customization campaigns."

Fabio García-Passalacqua, Senior Vice President of Banco Popular's Card Products Division, added: "We are constantly seeking innovative ideas to fulfill our cardholders' needs and at the same time to trigger new market trends. We are confident that the new service will be a big success in Puerto Rico."