Building a commercial banking brand connected to community value
The best brand campaigns are those that connect a product or service with a need (conscious or unconscious) in a way that paints a vivid picture of a mutually beneficial outcome. In the case of this campaign for Russia’s Sberbank, the proposition is to use empty store fronts to help identify what retail or service offerings are in greatest demand by the local community and then encourage businesses to take out a bank loan to open a business that meets those needs.
Sberbank selected locations where there was unoccupied commercial real estate properties. During the campaign, Sberbank used online voting to gather information on what stores or other establishments were needed in specific neighborhoods of cities. The people who took part in the voting lived no more than 500 metres away from the vacant commercial real estate properties.
The information that was received was transmitted, in real time, to business people via digital channels. Sberbank proposed that these business people take out loans to set up businesses which were in demand in specific neighbourhoods.
As a result of the campaign, the number of clients who requested loans was two times larger than if an ordinary advertising campaign would have taken place. The cost-effectiveness of Neighbourhoods was 30% higher than that of other projects.
“It is important that we create campaigns that not only talk about our products and services but also make people’s lives easier,” commented Yevgeniya Churbanova, Deputy Director of Sberbank’s Marketing and Communications Department. “By using big data we built up a real time dialogue between the end users of services and entrepreneurs. As a result, using advertising methods we were able to bring value to both the business community and city dwellers.”
Dave Ansett
David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in the creation of high engagement brands that attract the attention of their audience and stand out from their competitors. David has extensive experience working with corporate, retail, food & beverage and entrepreneurial clients. Find out more here
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Campaign creative by Moscow-based agency; Good.
Pics from Sberbank.