‘It’s not utility vs emotion, it’s both’: How banks are creating brand-building experiences online After a year filled with social distancing and lockdowns, Australians are now very familiar with connecting with brands and businesses online. In this live discussion from Mumbrella’s virtual Finance Marketing Summit, the panel described how banks are building their brands by becoming interactive parts of their online communities. November 23, 2020 10:35 Sponsored by Facebook Over the past year, people around the globe have adopted massive behaviour shifts as a result of the pandemic. From work to shopping to connecting with friends and family, these transformations have been almost exclusively towards digital.“We saw Instagram Live views double in just a week back in March” said Helen Black, Facebook’s head of connection planning, during the panel at Mumbrella’s Finance Marketing Summit. “There’s also been the phenomenal growth in e-commerce, the rise in cash and contactless Payments, and mobile banking.Panel discussion featuring ANZ Bank CMO, Sweta Mehra, TBWA managing director, Ricci Meldrum, Facebook’s head of connection planning, Helen Black, moderated by Nick Tubb, head of financial services, Facebook.“There’s been this mass digital education of the public across generations, and as we’ve learned how to use new digital technologies, it’s really opened up a whole new world of digital experiences,” she said. “Now we’re in that world where physical experiences are a little bit more limited, we’ve really seen the potential of digital to build those brand experiences and do so at scale.”ADVERTISEMENT This shift towards almost wholly digital experiences has also resulted in a change in mindset around which platforms can build brands. “In the past, digital platforms like Facebook have potentially been pigeonholed as amazing performance channels,” said Black. “But in truth, the brand-building potential has been growing rapidly and has particularly accelerated over the last few months.’”Helen Black, Facebook’s head of connection planning: “We saw Instagram Live views double in just a week back in March”Utility vs emotionWhen building a banking brand through digital experiences, marketers shouldn’t be looking for either pure utility or pure emotional storytelling, but a combination of the two. ANZ Bank CMO Sweta Mehra explained that marketing needs to act as the glue that unites emotion-led communication and utility-driven user experience.“For many years, marketing was focussed more on communication,” she said. “The teams that were focused on building the experience were building it with different parameters and different design principles, which resulted in a very poor brand experience.”ANZ Bank CMO Sweta MehraMehra and her team found a way to unify all sides of her organisation around the same customer experience principles, and turn marketing into the glue that holds the entire organisation together. “As a brand, we are beginning to be more consistent and cohesive across the consumer experience,” she said. “For us, these [social] platforms are providing us with a way to connect with the consumer and relook at their behaviours that normal advertising would never be able to do and that’s something we’re hoping to do more and more of.”“It’s definitely not one versus the other, it’s both,” added Facebook’s Black. “At Facebook, we put a lot of focus on our experiences, so it’s about making sure that our users can meaningfully connect with people. If we can make that as compelling and as relevant as possible, that goes a really long way to building our brand.”The panel had a lot of praise for Kayla Itsines’ SWEAT brand, which has been built almost entirely online. As Black explains: “They’ve built this community of now more than 50 million women globally, who are supporting each other on their fitness journey, sharing tips, and success stories, and accessing trainers and workouts through that community.“As we said before, it’s not about utility vs emotion. It’s actually both. [SWEAT] does that, and I think the two are closer together than we probably ever even realized.”Financial wellbeing should be thought of in the same way as any other form of wellbeing, as Black explained: “There are a lot of parallels between someone’s fitness journey and someone’s financial journey… so be inspired with pride.”Getting brave ideas across the lineIn order for banks to get big, experience-led ideas across the line, the idea must always be solving a true business problem. According to TBWA managing director, Ricci Meldrum, who was also on the panel: “If that idea doesn’t have a home, and it’s not serving a true purpose, it’s not going to attract budget or have true champions internally.”TBWA managing director, Ricci MeldrumIn 2014, TBWA transformed central Sydney ATMs into dazzling GAYTMs. Ten unique GAYTMs, inspired by LGBT culture, were installed on Sydney’s busiest streets for three weeks surrounding Mardi Gras.Meldrum explains how the agency got ‘GAYTMs’ across the line: “It’s about working out who the key stakeholders are very, very quickly. After we presented it to marketing, one of the first people we went to was the head of risk.“We knew that this idea was incredibly brave back in 2014, in particular, for a big bank to come out in the way that it did at the time. So getting the head of risk on board very early, was a really smart move.”For Black, the ultimate lesson is that brands need to build for people: “I really hope it doesn’t take another pandemic to force us to accelerate the change that is needed in the world.“As we’re doing all of this, I hope that we build for people, that we support them, we give them what they want and what they need, wherever, whenever and however they need it.”Looking for the latest in Australian insights? Facebook’s Future Now series sheds light on how consumer behaviours are shifting in real time and what they might mean for you. Download the latest insights summary as we spotlight sentiment towards the upcoming Christmas/Summer period, dive into macro trends, vertical micro-shifts and more. CONTENT SPONSORED BY Facebook ADVERTISEMENT