Danske Bank: Headstart

Credits & Description:

BRAND: Danske Bank
CATEGORY: Financial
REGION: Norway
DATE: September - October 2015
AGENCY: MediaCom
MEDIA CHANNEL: Direct Marketing,Online,Print
Insight
Danske Bank’s business team faced a double challenge in their quest to attract more Swedish and Norwegian business customers.
Such customers were hugely valuable to the bank, worth up to 1m Danish Kroner ($150,000) a year. The trouble is, they are highly risk averse, brand loyal and reluctant to change – most high net worth professionals moved banks only once every 12 years. They were also ridiculously hard to reach – not just because they were busy, but also because they were fiercely guarded. Secretarial gatekeepers were adept at keeping sales teams well away from the CEOs and CFOs of large companies.
MediaCom's challenge was to overcome these obstacles and find a way for Danske Bank to talk directly to its big business prospects.
The brand insight was that, despite the amazing service the company could offer, that wasn't what prospects wanted to hear about. The key to opening the door was not to talk about Danske Bank, but to talk about the prospect – the person. It had to make sure that the communication was all about them, proving that the company truly understood their needs and their challenges.
Only then would it deliver the meetings that Danske Bank needed to start the conversion process.
Strategy
The agency started out by identifying the scale of the challenge, firstly identifying 200 CFOs and CEOs in each of Norway and Sweden. Then it set about understanding the journey to changing banks to reveal how marketing could play a role. This process helped uncover the brand insight – that the communication needed to focus on the person, not the bank – but also identified that the marketing needed to be true to the bank’s brand promise.
Every single action performed had to match Danske Bank’s promise that it was willing to go the extra mile for its business customers. That led to the strategy. If the message had to be about the prospects, then the communication needed to take that literally.
MediaCom's solution would target them individually, with laser-targeted one-to-one messages. It would treat the prospects not as if they were prospects, but as if they were already customers of Danske Bank.
It would create bespoke content for each contact, targeted at each individual by its use of key business media – personalised print and video content and an online news-feed.
This level of personal attention would ensure that the prospects felt part of the Danske Bank family, before they’d even had a meeting.
The strategy wasn't simple. It required hundreds of separate, bespoke pieces of content, all convincing enough to make each of these discerning, reluctant prospects believe that they were the top target.
Execution
The agency had to ensure the 400 prospects felt that Danske Bank was sincerely interested in them as business people and individuals.
In total, MediaCom made 1,900 different pieces of personalised content, all delivered to the prospects in a customised package that would encourage them to engage.
Each package contained a personalised version of the daily financial newspaper, speaking directly and literally to the targets. When opened, it read, “This is a special version of the financial newspaper – just for you – have a great read.”
Inside was the newspaper edition for that day, but with two important differences: it featured Danske Bank advertising only, four of which called out the prospect by name.
A week later, this was followed by an innovative customised video book. This featured the CEO of Danske Bank in either Norway or Sweden, addressing each prospect by name, and showing how Danske Bank employees were working hard to understand their specific needs.
The agency then created a personalised online newsfeed for each prospect, which was emailed to them in the third week by their potential new Account Manager and included a stream of regularly updated articles that were relevant for their business.
All information was taken from public sources, such as LinkedIn profiles, to ensure that no-one felt they were being stalked, and messages were 100% directed at the prospect as a professional rather than private individual.
Results
This personal, targeted approach has dramatically transformed Danske Bank’s business prospecting. After 10 weeks, 40% of the target had booked meetings with Danske Bank – and so far, 10 have become clients.
It delivered a 100% increase in the number of meetings the bank has been able to secure with high net worth prospects. This has risen from 2% to 20%.
Conversion rates from these meetings are also outstanding, currently at 10% - an extraordinary achievement considering how complex and challenging the process of switching banks is.
Conversations are still ongoing with some prospects, but the initial success ensured that the campaign has already paid for itself, and these new customers will become profit centres in year two.
The message was so powerful that some of the prospects even called the bank themselves, saying: “I think you want to talk to me.”
In the course of a three-week campaign, Danske Bank turned inaccessible CEOs and CFOs into potential clients.