Bank of Ireland has become the first bank here to use social media platform Snapchat to connect with younger customers.

The bank has launched its 2016 FeelFree student reward programme with Snapchat star James Kavanagh and model Thalia Heffernan. Over the coming weeks, student ambassadors and so-called influencers will share hacks and top tips to help students save money.

The FeelFree programme offers students who sign up for a new third=level account up to €100 worth of rewards, including cinema tickets, pizza vouchers, surf lessons and beauty treatments.

As part of the campaign, Mr Kavanagh will visit University of Limerick and Trinity College Dublin to promote the rewards programme. The bank will also distribute BoI PowerBanks on campus to those who sign up for a new account.

Commenting on the move, Laura Lynch, head of youth banking at Bank of Ireland, said: "We want to give back to students throughout the year by rewarding them for being loyal with a huge choice of rewards . . . things they have told us that they want, that are fun and relevant and will make their lives easier.

“We are also looking forward to using our new Snapchat channel to communicate with our student customers and share helpful tips with them on a range of topics and give them behind-the-scenes access. We are delighted to have Snapchat star James Kavanagh on board to help us launch our latest platform.”

FeelFree will run from October until May 2017. Each quarter a range of rewards will be on offer to those within this pool. Access is linked to a particular banking task. Customers who complete the task within the timeframe will receive a redemption code from the bank.

The bank sees Snapchat as a way to promote its brand by communicating with the youth market. The “snapchat story” can be a series of short videos or a sequence of images which can also have drawings and text embedded. They last for 24 hours.

Bank of Ireland won’t be pushing product or advertising through the channel. The content will reflect what students have told the bank they want to see.

Content will include behind the scenes footage from sponsorships such as sport, music, fashion and tech. The bank will also work with key influencers to pull together engaging content.