Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What's working in banking

Article • WARC Category Intelligence, March 2019

Global strategies, campaign updates and trends in the banking category.

Bradesco: ‘Next’ Bank

Case Study • Cannes Creative Lions, Entrant, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2019

Bradesco, a bank, launched an app to help it reach a younger, digital-first generation in Brazil.

KASIKORNBANK: Friendshit

Case Study • Cannes Creative Lions, Entrant, Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2019

Kbank, a bank, entered Thailand's popular culture with its online film, which also increased its mobile banking users from 5.6 million to 9 million.

Halifax Flagship, Oxford Street

Case Study • Design Business Association, Bronze, 2019

Halifax, a bank under the Lloyds Banking Group, redesigned its flagship London store to reflect elements of the home, in order to encourage more in-store visits in the UK.

Lloyds Bank Manchester

Case Study • Design Business Association, Bronze, 2019

Lloyds Bank, a banking brand, reformulated its branch strategy in Manchester by launching a new flagship store with an innovative customer experience to increase store visits in the UK.

Mobile banking takes root in the UK

News • 10 June 2019

Almost half (48%) of adults in the UK used mobile banking in 2018, up from 41% in the previous year, while 5.4 million consumers chose not to use cash at all, a new industry report has revealed.

HSBC tunes up its sonic identity

News • 06 June 2019

When HSBC began a global refresh of its brand identity last year, the bank’s well-known red and white hexagon was the most obvious aspect, but no less important has been the development of a sound identity for the first time, says a top ...

How Starling Bank uses data to build products and engage users

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, MMA Impact, May 2019

Starling is one of the UK’s new disruptor banking brands, which in two years has gone from a standing start to having 600,000 customers.

Citi drives female equality with music marketing

News • 03 June 2019

Citi, the financial services provider, is infusing its commitment to driving female equality into marketing endeavours related to the music industry, a space where the brand is a significant player.

Using sound to create a 360-degree brand identity

Article • Andrea Newman, Admap, June 2019

Details how HSBC used sound to create a 360-degree global brand identity after suffering brand value decline.

Starling Bank: Helping a Challenger Bank Take Flight

Case Study • SABRE Awards, EMEA, United Kingdom and Ireland (Medium Budget), Gold, 2019

Challenger banking brand Starling employed a traditional PR approach to move from the fintech news websites to mainstream media.

Starling Bank: #MakeMoneyEqual

Case Study • SABRE Awards, EMEA, Consumer Marketing (Existing Product), Gold, 2019

Challenger banking brand Starling launched a multichannel campaign in the UK to drive new business and lead a conversation about gender stereotypes in finance.

HSBC UK: Cyber-Crime: a campaign that didn't add up

Case Study • SABRE Awards, EMEA, Consumer Products, Gold, 2019

Banking brand HSBC ‘stole’ the identity of TV mathematician Rachel Riley to educate customers in the UK about the dangers of cyber crime.

Lloyds: #GetTheInsideOut

Case Study • SABRE Awards, EMEA, Influencer Marketing, Gold, 2019

Banking brand Lloyd’s Bank and its charity partner Mental Health UK, used influencers to spearhead a social media campaign to tackle the taboo of talking about mental health in the UK.

Citi strikes a new note for inclusion in ads with “#SeeHerHearHer”

Article • Stephen Whiteside, Event Reports, #SeeHer 2019 Creative and Media Leadership Summit, March 2019

Citi, the financial-services provider, is using its marketing muscle to boost female empowerment in the music industry.

Measuring exchange norms and its impact on satisfaction in a B2C context

Research Paper • Najoua Elommal, Riadh Manita and Damien Chaney, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 61, No. 3, 2019, pp. 302-319

This research investigates the relevance of exchange norms in a business-to-consumer context and studies the impact of both relational and discrete norms on customer satisfaction in services.

Barclays takes an asset-led approach to data

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, Marketing Week Insight Show, March 2019

Barclays’ approach to data analytics involves focusing on existing analytic capabilities and where they can best be deployed, and then ensuring that project output can be repurposed or reused.

The world's best financial services campaigns and companies 2019

Rankings • Rankings Articles, May 2019

Looks into which financial services campaigns, along with the agencies that have worked on financial services campaigns, have performed best over the past year.

Brand relatability x financial services: How to win with GenZ and millennials

Article • Ryan Arshad, WARC Webinars, May 2019

Discusses the core drivers of building 'brand relatability' vs brand relevancy and why and how the mindset of millennials and Gen Z differs when it comes to financial brand consideration.

Byblos Bank: The Makers account – Make Small Victories

Case Study • Carl Bou Abdallah, WARC Awards, Silver, Effective Content Strategy, 2019

Lebanese bank Byblos Bank re-ignited interest for its youth account through content and events specially designed to inspire young customers.

State Bank of India: The Language of Hope

Case Study • Amit Kekre, Toru Jhaveri, Sanchari Chakrabarty, WARC Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Brand Purpose, 2019

State Bank of India used an integrated campaign to position its loan products as a differentiated offering in a cluttered loan market and build a contemporary, modern image in the minds of young Indians.

EGBank: The Chronicles of Oufa and Mint

Case Study • Naila Fattouh, WARC Awards, Shortlisted, Effective Use of Brand Purpose, 2019

Banking brand EGBank established its own startup incubator to grow its affinity with young people in Egypt and get them to open accounts.

Bank of America: Echoes of Vietnam

Case Study • Jessica Perrin, WARC Awards, Entrant, Effective Use of Brand Purpose, 2019

Bank of America created an online streaming audio-visual experience based on the Vietnam War to drive positive sentiment among millennials in the US.

Banking brands ripe for marketing disruption

News • 18 April 2019

Established banking brands offer profound opportunities for internal disruption, a task potentially running through from marketing to product creation and technological capabilities.

Emirates NBD: While You Wait…

Case Study • Tahaab Rais, Anna Sadykova, WARC Awards, Silver, Effective Social Strategy, 2019

Money remittance service DirectRemit turned YouTube pre-roll ads into effective marketing messages to attract more users in the United Arab Emirates.

Financial services