CLIENT: HCB

CAPABILITIES: ADVERTISING, COMMUNICATIONS

HOW DO YOU PERSUADE PEOPLE TO START LIKING THE MOST UNPOPULAR BANK IN RUSSIA?

Let’s face it. Banks aren’t exactly everyone’s best friends. They’re essentially more of a necessary evil than anything else. Something you need, rather than something you want. A distress purchase. But the one thing they absolutely must be is trustworthy. And back in 2017, Home Credit Bank certainly wasn't. A major shift in brand consideration needed to be activated in order for HCB to survive.

WHAT WE DID:

We took HCB through our communications planning process, kicking off with stage 1 – listening. Listening to customers, listening to brand managers, listening to the culture; taking the pulse of the category and identifying the symptoms.

Here, we found that the language, culture and process of the category appeared to be focussed on the functional benefits of ‘getting things’ – it was uninspiring, complex and negative. We needed this to change and began to investigate what the brand could be saying or doing differently, in order to help consumers feel and act differently towards them?

The choice we made was rooted in the insight that the important thing to offer was ‘possibility’. HCB was, in essence, an ‘enabler’. HCB helped make dreams come true. You might need a new dining table because the old one’s wobbly, but you want a new dining table so you can share meals with your family. This brought us to our single most compelling thought...