1. Category: CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
PR Stils (Latvia)
MIND TEASING
SEB Banka
Summary
After the economic crisis, the reputation of the banking institutions plummeted - financial sector was seen as
impersonal and distant. With the economy in the midst of a nation-wide austerity program, reputation and brand
loyalty mattered more than ever. Seeing this, the agency proposed its client – SEB bank, one of the largest banks in
Latvia - to address business clients on a more personal level.
Due to the tough economic situation, more business leaders had started to question issues beyond just money and
finances – issues like creativity, future trends, values and culture. The agency proposed to respond to these searches
by creating a thought leadership forum - a cycle of intellectual discussions “Mind Teasing”.
Thanks to “Mind teasing” SEB bank has pushed relationships with its clients outside of the traditional business
framework. More than 1000 of the bank’s most important business clients have taken part in “Mind Teasing” events,
and “Mind Teasing” has become an integral part of SEB bank brand. Customer feedback shows that personal
approach and created intellectual value was one of the factors that helped SEB bank to raise its reputation from 14 th
place in 2011 to 7th place in 2012 (annual brand reputation rating in Latvia).
Situation
In 2010, Latvia’s economic crisis was at its most critical phase, and so was the peoples’ distrust in the financial
sector – overall loyalty in the banking sector dropped by 6%. Other banks tried to fight for clients with advertising
campaigns or, conversely, cut most their communication activities in general to avoid unwanted media attention. But
clients were less responsive towards traditional advertising, as they were busy thinking about their everyday
problems, and saw the bank less as a partner and more as a distant and impersonal organization. Faced with their
own challenges, clients were looking for inspiration and trustful relationship.
Objectives
Faced with the grim situation, SEB bank decided to set the following goals:
• Identify opportunities to reconnect with their clients on issues important to them;
• Create a brand that its business clients could relate to even outside the financial world;
• Improve brand loyalty among its business clients;
• Improve its reputation among both existing and potential business clients.
Strategy
SEB bank decided to turn the problem around on its head and come to their clients not just with issues about finance,
but also with the questions important to them at this moment in their lives.
After examining trends in client satisfaction and identifying the interests of business clients, the agency set to create
a new brand - “Mind Teasing” to bring together the banks’ clients and well-known opinion leaders for intellectual
conversations on values, culture and life. Each event invited 100 business clients and 4 inspirational speakers from
Latvia’s intellectual circles. The events were to be held regularly, each of the touching upon a different issue of
importance. Each issue was to be presented by speakers of various backgrounds, thus offering different perspectives
on the same idea. The event also allowed the bank’s representatives to meet with clients in an informal setting.
Execution
The “Mind Teasing” events were intellectual conversations that were held on a quarterly basis, each time inviting
about 100 business clients from the bank to take part. Each time there was one central topic with four speakers,
Baltic PR Awards 2012
2. Category: CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
people who were eager about their ideas – academics, entrepreneurs, opinion leaders, scientists and. The stories were
followed by questions from the audience and a discussion in an informal setting.
The events opened to such positive acclaim from the clients, that the bank decided to open them to the general public
– for free, the presentations are also broadcast live on the influential media channel in Latvia Diena.lv, making
inspiration available to anyone, anywhere.
The events gradually became the bank’s “added value”, and as a new extension of the activity the “Mind Teasing”
event format is now extensively used in the bank’s internal events as well.
Documented Results
• 1000 of the bank’s most important business clients attended the “Mind Teasing” events in person.
• The videos were watched by 10 400 people on the project homepage and 25 000 people on Diena.lv
• Sharp increase SEB bank reputation ratings from 14th place in 2011 to 7th in 2012.
• The bank upheld positive indicators in terms of client satisfaction and loyalty in the B2B and B2C sector.
• SEB banka has posted the best indicators in terms of service quality in the banking sector (EPSI review).
• TNS Latvia TRI*M reputation index affirmed SEB bank as the leader of reputation among all banks operating in
Latvia.
Baltic PR Awards 2012