Insight
SBAB has been a state owned mortgage loan company since 1985, and is now on a journey to becoming a “real” bank, with all the bank services offered by the commercial banks. The first step on this journey is to make people start using SBAB for more than mortgage loans. Hence, SBAB offers a savings account with high interest rate, no fees and free account withdrawals.
The marketing challenge is to increase the number of people opening a savings account with SBAB, and to increase the weekly deposits to these accounts. UM recognised that people have very low trust in banks in general. The four big commercial banks have a market share of 80%+ and are hugely profitable. They offer poor savings account interest rates with restrictions regarding withdrawals.
SBAB - as a former mortgage loan organisation - is strong in big cities in the mortgage loan category. But its market share for savings account is low, and so is the awareness of SBAB’s offer. However, SBAB is more trustworthy, being a state owned bank without the heritage of poor conditions for saving accounts.
UM built a strategy focusing on challenging the big commercial banks, comparing the SBAB offer to the other banks. It wanted to explain what low interest rates actually mean to your savings in an easy understandable, challenging and fun way. The overall objective was to increase number of savings accounts, and increase weekly deposits.
Strategy
UM wanted to build on the fact that the overall trust in the big commercial banks is low. Everyone is aware of low interest rates and high profits among the big banks – still the churn to smaller banks is very low. It’s a low engagement category – and it’s very complex. And even if banking is a very cluttered media category, the big banks don’t advertise savings accounts – for obvious reasons.
Given this, UM wanted to highlight how much money Swedes lose by having poor conditions on their savings accounts. UM strived to make this tangible, explaining the amount by relating to actual situations. How much money do Swedes lose in a week, a year, while waiting on a bus, while reading a newspaper etc.?
The agency created “The Loss Generator” on the SBAB website and in social media. “The Loss Generator” is a counter, showing how much Swedes have lost since January 1 by saving money in bank accounts with low interest rates – i.e. visualising the difference to the SBAB offer. At any time you can push “Stop the loss”, and the generator tells you what the loss is worth to date – transferred to what that money would buy; number of cinema visits, entries to the amusement park, etc.
Execution
UM aimed to show how much loss Swedes generate by poor savings account conditions through smart use of media:
Dailies: Focusing on Stockholm/Göteborg/Malmö, UM bought three consecutive ads/pages. The first ad said “This second, Swedes lose 499 SEK”, the second “Tomorrow you will have lost 43.099.072 SEK”, and the third “In one year, you will lose (gulp) 15.731.161.388 SEK”
Outdoor:
- Bus shelters: “2 minutes to the bus? Then you will lose 59.860 SEK on low interest rates”
- Underground: UM built a series of ads in the escalators, where the numbers increased: “Every second, Swedes lose 499 SEK on low interest rates”, “Now you’ve lost 2.494 SEK” …etc.
- Streets: UM used digital Eurosize ads, where they brought out “The Loss Generator” in real time counters on billboards. These street furniture where strategically bought outside or nearby big bank offices.
- Bus shelters: “2 minutes to the bus? Then you will lose 59.860 SEK on low interest rates”
- Underground: UM built a series of ads in the escalators, where the numbers increased: “Every second, Swedes lose 499 SEK on low interest rates”, “Now you’ve lost 2.494 SEK” …etc.
- Streets: UM used digital Eurosize ads, where they brought out “The Loss Generator” in real time counters on billboards. These street furniture where strategically bought outside or nearby big bank offices.
Online: Dynamic ads, reflecting the environment, e.g.: “When you Facebook for a quarter, Swedes have lost 449.100 kr. on low interest rates” …etc.
TV: A generic spot, explaining how much Swedes lose in a year, portraying the commercial banks a profitmaking clowns.
UM deployed two campaigns like this in 2013; in May/June, and in October/November.
Results
The results in 2013 were beyond all expectations, a pyramidal success.
- After the first campaign (May/June) the weekly baseline deposits increased by 279%
- After the second campaign (Oct/Nov) the average weekly deposits had increased by +663%, Q1 average compared to Q4 average.
- The market share for savings has also increased for SBAB: from 1.84% (Jan-Nov 2012) to 2.69% (Jan-Nov 2013). This is the highest market share increase among all banks…
- …but the SBAB share of “new” savings money in 2013 is 15%. This means that SBAB is number one in market share for new money – even bigger than the commercial banks, which have a far higher market share of the total savings.
- In October-November alone, the SBAB market share of new money is 34%! To put this in perspective, the overall market share (all savings) is 2.69%, as mentioned.
- Number of SBAB savings accounts increased from June 30, 2013 to December 31, 2013 by 24%...
- …and to total savings amount with SBAB increased by 45% during the same period!
- After the second campaign (Oct/Nov) the average weekly deposits had increased by +663%, Q1 average compared to Q4 average.
- The market share for savings has also increased for SBAB: from 1.84% (Jan-Nov 2012) to 2.69% (Jan-Nov 2013). This is the highest market share increase among all banks…
- …but the SBAB share of “new” savings money in 2013 is 15%. This means that SBAB is number one in market share for new money – even bigger than the commercial banks, which have a far higher market share of the total savings.
- In October-November alone, the SBAB market share of new money is 34%! To put this in perspective, the overall market share (all savings) is 2.69%, as mentioned.
- Number of SBAB savings accounts increased from June 30, 2013 to December 31, 2013 by 24%...
- …and to total savings amount with SBAB increased by 45% during the same period!
- Campaign recognition: 46% (finance category average: 30%)
- Liking: 27% (finance average: 18%)
- “The campaign is relevant for me”: 36% (finance average: 19%)
- Liking: 27% (finance average: 18%)
- “The campaign is relevant for me”: 36% (finance average: 19%)
To put the spend level and campaign size into a Swedish a perspective: the SOV for SBAB in 2013 is 8,5%, making SBAB the 5th biggest spender in this category. Hence, the campaigns have been medium sized campaigns.
The first step on the journey of transferring SBAB into a “real” bank has been highly successful. And the journey continues in 2014, when new services will be launched.
The first step on the journey of transferring SBAB into a “real” bank has been highly successful. And the journey continues in 2014, when new services will be launched.
No comments:
Post a Comment