It’s time to look at the shortlist for Marketer of the Year, which appears in Marketing’s Nov. 28 issue. We’ll be featuring each one online as a lead-up to our January 2012 issue, where you’ll find out which marketer will reign supreme.
Royal Bank of Canada
RBC has managed to transform its image to a friendlier, more accessible bank with a wider global reach
When a company has been around since the 1860s, an image overhaul is a marketer’s dream at best, a minefield at worst. Canadians have long viewed the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as trustworthy and professional, certainly, but also staid, conservative, even a little detached. Back in 2007, however, RBC embarked on a long-term strategy to change that image to a friendlier, more accessible financial institution. And in 2011, it seems all the pieces of that plan have finally come together.
“The significance of RBC is that they actually did what the textbooks say you’re supposed to do, which is play for the long term,” says Ken Wong, professor of marketing at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ont. Wong says RBC’s transformation began when the bank brought on Jim Little as its chief brand and communications officer.
Little quickly set the wheels in motion for a new marketing strategy that encompassed a diverse array of different elements, all of which he considered part of the same big picture. “We think about marketing and philanthropy and reputation all at once,” explains Little.
One of the elements of this big-picture plan was RBC’s Blue Water Project (BWP): a 10-year, $50-million commitment to protect the world’s fresh water supply. RBC began giving grants to not-for-profit organizations working in the area of protecting and preserving water as early as 2007, and has already committed more than $28 million to 380 organizations. For the first couple of years, the effort was focused almost exclusively on building up the project, with little work being done to publicize the endeavour.
Then, in 2010, RBC brought on Montreal agency CloudRaker to spread the word about the good work that had been going on for three years. A series of short documentary films about the grant recipients’ work was created, as well as a BWP Facebook page and YouTube channel, which by earlier this month had 174,329 channel views. The RBC Blue Water Facebook page had 28,377 fans, with a conversation rate averaging about 20 comments per post. “The success with the Facebook piece is that it wasn’t just about putting a campaign out there and leaving it at that. It’s something that RBC is continually engaging with people about and discussing,” says Christina Brown, creative director and partner at CloudRaker.
The Blue Water Project kicked off 2011 with its “Blue Year’s Resolution” program, a Facebook initiative that saw more than 1,800 people making pledges about drinking less bottled water, raising awareness of water issues and volunteering with watershed clean-ups. It also sponsored a high-profile exhibit at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum called “Water: The Exhibition.” Taking place from March until September, the exhibition attracted more than 130,000 visitors.
RBC has found BWP to have a “halo effect” for the company since it actively began publicizing the project in 2010. Although it’s difficult to quantify exactly how much business has been generated from BWP resonance, Little says there’s significant anecdotal evidence that new clients are signing up with RBC partly because they’re impressed with the bank’s commitment to social responsibility.
There’s more! Check out the Nov. 28 issue of Marketing for the full profile, and subscribe to find out who will be named the Marketer of the Year for 2011.
