Citibank: CITI PROJECT TALK

Credits & Description:

Category: Corporate Image & Information

Advertiser: CITIGROUP

Product/Service: CORPORATE

Date of First Appearance: Apr 1 2010

Entrant Company: OPTIMEDIA, New York, USA

Entry URL: http://new.citi.com/

Communications Planning Director: James Shoreland (Optimedia Inside)

Associate Director of Communications Planning: Joanne Barton (Optimedia Inside)

Media placement: Digital - Various - 1 April 2010

Media placement: Print - Various - 1 April 2010

Media placement: Social Media - Various - 1 April 2010

Media placement: Multi-Platform Partnerships - Various - 1 April 2010



Insights, Strategy & the Idea



CitiGroup was seen by Americans as a central villain behind the financial institution induced recession. Even as Citi repaid bailout money and initiated reform, the public, policy makers and influencers remained sceptical about the bank.



The challenge was how to restore Citi’s reputation to consumers that had lost confidence and trust in the bank … arguably the two most important qualities a financial institution needed to win over current and future customers.



The insight that drove our thinking was that a traditional corporate advertising campaign with high impact and mass spend would come across as arrogant and irresponsible, exactly the kind of associations we were trying to move away from.



We believed that to have any kind of impact in shifting such strong opinions, we would have to enable key influencers to arrive at this decision themselves and for them to persuade the wider population.



Creative Execution

Our big idea was new.citi.com, a blog styled site created to speak to influencers, to convince them about Citi’s role in America’s recovery and to present the company as transparent and accessible.



new.citi.com featured videos and posts from CEO Vikram Pandit and other execs on hot-button topics like mortgage assistance, community lending and Citi’s corporate governance reforms.



We drove influencer traffic to the blog via paid channels.



We used print selectively with publications like the Washington Post that spoke to policy makers.



Search campaigns made topics from the blog easily accessible to target when in discovery mode.



Carefully chosen content integrations allowed us to promote debate while protecting the brand:

Politico.com’s The Arena, an invitation-only section for news reporters, leaders and lawmakers

Economist.com’s debate series, positioning Citi at the heart of thought-provoking conversation

CNN’s The Buzz, aligning with a macroeconomic theme of the day



Results and Effectiveness

New.citi.com received over 500,000 unique visitors to the site, phenomenal given we were only targeting active influencers (200,000+ in the US).



The GNI tracking showcased a clear positive trend in sentiment towards Citi, shifting from an extremely negative one in the pre-campaign results.

% of Negative comments

- Jan 2010 (Control) – 37.5%

- Feb (Microsite launch) – 27.5%

- Mar (Advert launch) – 24%

- Apr – 15%

% of Positive comments

- Jan 2010 (Control) – 21%

- Feb (Microsite launch) – 20.5%

- Mar (Advert launch) – 25%

- Apr – 36%



How the media reported on the bank was a key factor in influencing public opinion. News headlines of influential consumer and business press shifted noticeably.