http://news.com.com/2100-1017-248081.html?legacy=cnet
yeah, that was th enumber... its been chanceged
JERSEY CITY, N.J.--National Discount Brokers Group is spending $10,000 a day on toll-free access charges, as hundreds of thousands of people dial the discount broker's 1-800 number to hear a duck quack.
NDB uses a mallard as its mascot. Chris McQuilkin, president and chief executive of the brokerage, said he decided on a whim to make a quacking sound the last option on its automated telephone system. McQuilkin said he was in a conference room programming the company's phone system and found an open menu option when he decided to make the recorded sound accessible.
Last Thursday, 475,000 people pressed the key to hear the duck quack, McQuilkin said. Six million people have called to hear the quack in the past three weeks. An email message circulating the Internet added fuel to the quacking duck craze.
McQuilkin, whose company is being bought by Deutsche Bank, says the toll-free number costs are dollars well spent, as the company opened 75 percent more brokerage accounts in the past three weeks than it did in the previous month. NDB.com, the online brokerage unit of the company, spent $6.8 million on selling and marketing, which includes advertising costs, in the previous quarter.
In the three months ended Aug. 31, NDB added 23,300 accounts, making the monthly average about 7,767. NDB's average account has $41,791 in assets, with $11.2 billion in total client assets at the end of last quarter.
McQuilkin wouldn't comment on whether the company will keep its name or its mascot when Deutsche Bank completes its purchase
