Baltic PR Awards 2012 Category: SPONSORSHIP Organization: SWEDBANK Country: Latvia Project name: Restoring Trust in Banking. The Phygital Way 1st PLACE

1. Category: SPONSORSHIP
Swedbank (Latvia)
Title of Campaign
Restoring Trust in Banking. The Phygital Way
Summary
Crisis hit Latvia the hardest in EU. GDP dropped by 25%, people emigrated and owed banks high mortgages. Banks
were seen as equally bad. Impersonal online communication prevailed, which brought the challenge of personalized
engagement, so important in banking - the business of trust. Swedbank saw its 20th anniversary campaign as great
opportunity to address increasing trust and personalization issue in banking sector. As a market leader with half of 2
million population as its clients, Swedbank decided to focus on boosting loyalty of existing customers.
Smart usage of digital tools was combined with a large-scale event – exclusive concert of Latvian super-band Prāta
Vētra. Instead of tailor-made website or social media network, Swedbank's internet bank was used in innovative way
as the main communication platform: people registered there for concert and co-created the concert program. Bank
cards turned into entrance tickets and not only saved paper for ticket printing, but also gave opportunity for
personalized greetings of the clients at the event. Client response rate exceeded 10% and 30 000 attended the live
event. A great campaign lead to Swedbank becoming the 3rd most loved brand in Latvia.
Situation
In 2 years of crisis Latvia's GDP dropped by 25%. Unemployment and high mortgage forced emigration. Dramatic
salary decrease resulted in average household loans exceeding net income 3 times. People ended up being dependent
on banks and angry about it. Banks were among the first to be blamed. They were all seen as equally bad. In customer
relations impersonal online communication prevailed, which brought the challenge of personalized engagement, so
important in banking - the business of trust. Swedbank saw the need to boost client's loyalty and address the challenge
of building trustworthy relationships in a digital era.
Objectives
Goals:
- Swedbank standing out among competition by clients’ emotional linkage with the brand
- Average response rate for customer loyalty campaigns (5%) is exceeded
- Supportive background for sales in retail provided
- Natural positive social media buzz about the brand facilitated
Target audience: existing Swedbank clients
Three kinds of research. Firstly, assessment of the market situation after crisis and customer communication trends.
Secondly, benchmarking research such as TRIM, independent reputation surveys, social media content analysis.
Thirdly, an assessment of efficiency of communication channels (as a result Swedbank internet bank and Twitter were
selected as communication platforms).
Strategy
To engage with clients it was decided to organize an exclusive personalized large scale event, extended by an online
broadcast. As a reputation leader and one of most loved brands, Swedbank chose to collaborate with another
reputation leader – most loved music band Prāta Vētra that is equally popular among both Latvian and Russian (26%
of population) communities. To overcome the divide between digital and live communication, Swedbank went
phygital: bank's existing digital systems (internet bank and bank cards) were used in smart and innovative ways to
engage with clients in personalized way and co-create a live event.
Following criteria were set for evaluation of results:
- client activity: response rate, content input, attendance at the event
- social media content, keywords
- Independent research results – most loved brand survey
- campaign effect on retail clients
- TRIM above 67, i.e. higher than in 2011
Baltic PR Awards 2012

2. Category: SPONSORSHIP
Execution
Celebrating its 20th anniversary Swedbank became the supporter of Latvian super-band Prāta Vētra tour and
announced exclusive client concert on 18 August. Swedbank's internet bank was used as the main communication
platform. First clients were invited to register for the lottery of concert tickets (10% of clients registered). Due to
limited venue capacity, 30 000 attendees were selected via lottery. Then clients were engaged in co-creating the
program of the concert by voting for their favourite Prāta Vētra songs. Entrance to the concert was not only truly
phygital, but also ecological: no paper was wasted to print tickets, instead client's bank card served as entrance pass
and after swiping it client received a personalized welcome message on the screens. To manage disappointment of
those who did not have the chance to attend the concert, it was also broadcasted online.
Documented Results
Swedbank became 3rd most loved brand in Latvia according to independent annual research conducted shortly after
the campaign. Campaign response rate exceeded 10% 43 000 clients participated in co-creation of the concert program
online; 14 000 clients including expats in Great Britain and elsewhere watched the online broadcast of the concert
9000 new retail clients joined Swedbank during campaign and in the following month Social media reach was 120
000, 70% of it highly positive brand mentions. Key phrases from the content: “superbank”, “most loved bank”, “proud
to be Swedbank client”, “million positive emotions”, “happy”, “Xmas have come early, thank you Swedbank” (TRIM
results not available on the day of BPRA submission).
Baltic PR Awards 2012