Why can’t banks generate the kind of media buzz of an Apple?

I raise this question because I read an article this morning about the proposed screen for the upcoming Apple iPhone 6. The article revealed that the upcoming iPhone 6’s screen will be bendable and “stab-proof,” whatever that means. In fact, there have been at least 300 articles written online in the past couple days — about the screen of a phone. I mean, think about that. A screen on a smartphone bends and dozens of news outlets write it. Over and over again.

When was the last time a bank got that kind of frenzy of coverage — for anything? How about never.

This comes to mind after the recently released update to USAA’s mobile banking app, which we wrote about here yesterday. What’s fascinating about this app is how far afield it takes the mobile banking app. I mean, the app includes emergency alerts. This is a mobile banking app from a financial institution, and it is warning people about tornadoes and such. This is not what you would expect from a mobile banking app. Rather, USAA is offering a fresh take on what is a “mobile banking app.” Although you won’t read 300 news articles about it. So far it looks like we’re the only news source to post on it.

A clue to this quandary comes in one of the video blogs on the iPhone 6 screen. Marques Brownlee of Digit.in offered a five minute — five minute! — review of the screen. Brownlee starts his video by saying this: “What’s up, guys. Marques Brownlee here. It’s 2014 and everything leaks, and this is the second video I am making about the iPhone 6.”

Everything leaks. Everything, that is, except anything from the financial services sector. The truth is that unless banks cultivate a PR culture of sneak peaks and “excitement,” they will continue to release novel products and features, like USAA’s new app, to the sound of crickets.