How do you ensure that abstract values become tangible and start to live among all employees? We figured it out with Europabank in an extensive employer branding journey.
Our employer branding trajectory with Europabank started in 2018. That year, we organised 2 workshops in which we explored Europabank’s values together with employees. Based on these 2 sessions, we identified 3 values: connecting, accessible and resourceful. To make sure that every Europabank employee always has a handle on how to properly communicate and live these values, we created a brand passport.
But how do you ensure that these abstract values also smoothly find their way to the shop floor? For this, there was a clear need for an internal campaign. For the starting point of that campaign, we looked for inspiration in Europabank’s baseline: ‘The bank that dares’. Countries we eventually landed on: ‘Yes, I dare’ and ‘Oui, j’ose’ in French to carry through the core of the baseline in all communication layers.
In 2019, we shot a vision film for the bank. It was not a classic corporate film, but a video with a fun twist, completely in Europabank’s witty style with the necessary dose of self-deprecation. The vision film was divided into 3 episodes. Each episode played on 1 of the bank’s 3 values in a light-hearted way. The three videos could be used either separately or together – as one long video.
To also have a physical presence in the offices, we created amusing, motivational posters consisting purely of text. Each poster always departed from a specific value.
The intention was to solemnly unveil the vision film at a major live event in early March, but corona decided otherwise. Result: the event was postponed several times and, consequently, so was the campaign.
But, Europabank is a bank that dares, a bank that never gives up. In the end, we decided not to wait until the pandemic was over to bring all employees together at an event. Not physically, but digitally. The time finally came at the end of October 2020 and the employer branding campaign was launched during a webinar.
The intention is to roll out the campaign externally in 2021 so that future employees are also included in Europabank’s ‘daring’ story.
