Sergiu Mircea, BT: How to make banking fashionable

Interview with BIZ magazine (September 2019)

When marketing is done in real time, with 4-5 campaigns a day, you have to understand the trends, use influencers, be at the coolest events, says Sergiu Mircea, Marketing and Communication Director of Banca Transilvania. All to make banking products and services "fashionable".

What are the challenges for banking marketing brought by the evolution of technology?

I think it's hard to talk about category marketing at the moment because it's a globalised market. Until now you could talk about bank marketing because you were somehow in a monopoly area, you were competing with banks. You were almost like a utility provider and you could say things were quite boring. Now it seems to me that you actually have competitors that you don't know. Our theory at BT is that the banking product has to be fashionable, because now you can do banking just with your phone - you have Apple Pay or BT Pay on your phone and you don't even need a card anymore. You don't really go to the bank any more and our generation, not to mention the coming generations, want their bank or the people they make payments with to be fashionable.

We care a lot about our phone, invest in it, change it quite often, buy apps and want it to be cool. We have very high expectations from banks and we see that they want to have cool products. The bank brands that are trending are fashionable, they're going into the consumer goods area - you want to show that you understand trends, that you use influencers, that you're at the coolest events. But if I had to choose between "the old way of doing things" and "the new way of doing things", I don't know if my colleagues and I would be professionally satisfied with the old way of doing things.

Clearly, things have changed because technology has changed the way customers see and feel brands. Even if you're a bank, you can no longer say you're in a regulated industry where the customer comes just for safety.

How does technology help you interact with customers?

The biggest influence has been how technology has changed customer expectations and behaviour. Social media has changed everything. I remember 5-6 years ago, companies used to plan 4-5 campaigns at the beginning of the year. You would prepare the campaign for two months, launch it and then the customers would come. And many companies still do that. We no longer have 4-5 campaigns a year, but 4-5 campaigns a day. Many times the campaigns for a particular day are set that very morning.

It's technology that allows you to do this, you just have to line things up internally and you go on Facebook, Instagram or radio and they have an incredible impact. Technology has changed people's mindset - from 4-5 campaigns a year, to 20 campaigns a week where you're extremely effervescent. You come into the office in the morning and you don't know how the day is going to end, because in competitive fields a competitor throws down the gauntlet, you pick it up and by the end of the day things can evolve into countless variations. Everything is much more dynamic.

How do you end up doing 4-5 campaigns a day?

It sounds simple, but to be able to do a lot of tactical campaigns, the whole company has to be built on this mindset. You have to have in-house designers, you have to have copy, you have to build your department on the model of an agency, so you can move very quickly. And then you need empowerment. People in the bank need to see that these kinds of campaigns get results and be friendly when you propose to change some departments that maybe are quite static and support you for a campaign where you price a product lower. Or when you do a campaign where those who transact within a time slot enjoy certain benefits. Behind the campaigns are the departments that support you.

How long did it take you to build this setup?

Years. At first you got the taste, you saw you no longer had the appetite for big campaigns. It happened over the course of a few years. And that's what differentiated us and made us successful in certain segments - the urban environment, in big cities and very big cities - the fact that we had this setup ready. You need experienced people who can make decisions on their own, because if it's all down to one person's decision, you can't do these campaigns. It happens that I don't even know about some campaigns done in the department, because people know what they have to do and they do it. Technology helps you do campaigns, but it's the mindset of the people you work with that's important. There may be external events at the weekend. Maybe you're supporting an athlete and they qualify or win a competition and your whole weekend changes because you have to get a new campaign going.

What is the most challenging campaign you have developed at BT?

I think the hardest was the rebranding of the bank almost three years ago. A visual rebranding, which came with a repositioning campaign in which we wanted to show that BT has values beyond the day-to-day commercial activity - supporting entrepreneurship, financing the economy. We had other big campaigns, but this one I think was the most important.

What are your plans for the next period?

The bank has made significant steps in the area of digitization, I think we are 2-3 banks more advanced in this area. For the last 2-3 months, I have only left the house with my phone, I don't take my wallet with me. We already have a good user experience, the next step is the launch of NEO, which is a different brand, built almost outside the bank, with a distinct visual identity. It's a bigger step, in a digitalisation strategy. At the same time, last year we launched a campaign with Simona Halep, which is in the same area - of the bank's values. We wanted it to be a campaign for Romania and we launched it on 1 December, on the Centenary - Let's do something, Romania! And, as noblesse oblige, we will have a sequel at least as strong. We want to give Romanians a little bit of optimism.