From their entry on social media to their current strategy and objective, the article explores Bank of Baroda's social DNA. The article is a part of our Agency Spotlight segment, featuring path-breaking work by D-Crypt.

Bank of Baroda launched its official presence on social media on Jan 1st 2016. Being one of the first public sector banks to make a debut on social media, Bank of Baroda was all set to make it big in the social media world. The marketing team took a courageous call to tread a different path and have a qualitatively better presence rather than solely pursuing numbers like fans and followers. The strategy and content was crafted for better engagement as is reflected in the benchmarking with peer banks. Preparatory activities within the Bank also involved change of management and awareness session across the ranks so that there was excitement and preparedness. The Bank’s marketing team worked with D-Crypt (the digital wing of Goldmine Advertising) for crafting a series of campaigns each with different objectives: Brand building, Engagement with audiences, promoting specific products etc. Some of the campaigns included: #OneInALeap leveraging the extra day (February 29th) of the leap year 2016. The Bank’s hashtag #OneInALeap was trending on Twitter for six hours on 29th Feb. This was commendable considering that the Indian Union Budget 2016 was a much-discussed topic through the day. Hate2Wait: This campaign#Hate2Wait promoted the various Alternate Delivery Channels (ADCs) of the Bank positioning them as effective alternatives to traditional Branch Banking. This was crafted to save time of customers, especially the younger generation, who like quick and comprehensive services. #Hate2Wait campaign promote the options for Smart Banking services by way of ADCs in an interesting manner. Examples of ADCs include Baroda Connect, MConnect, Debit Cards, ATM, Elobby, M-CLIP, Multifunction Kiosk. RaiseYourGame: The objective of the #RaiseYourGame contest was to build awareness of the Bank of Baroda brand by leveraging National Sports Day. The hashtag #RaiseYourGame was trending on Twitter for more than 3 hours on 29th August. BankofBaroda109 campaign commemorated the 109th Foundation Day of the Bank.It outlined the rich heritage of the Bank discreetly underscoring the financial stability and trustworthiness of the Bank and Brand. The Bank’s loyal customers heartily participated in the contest and hashtag #BankofBaroda109 was trending on Twitter for more than 6 hours on 20th July and was active for more than 7 hours. This contest gained the highest number of participation in the past 7 months. The creative process from D-Crypt (the digital wing of Goldmine Advertising) ensured fresh content and crafted campaigns for engaging with audiences for Bank of Baroda. The target groups for each campaign and product promotions continue to be carefully chosen to align with the Bank’s objectives and desired outcomes. The analytics platform deployed: QuickMetrix continually measures the Bank’s image as it evolves, engagement of the brand as well as posts, comparison with peer Banks, curating conversations and comments so that they can be utilised by the brand for better understanding of customers and prospects. They key highlight of Bank of Baroda’s journey is how quickly an established Bank adapted to and absorbed a relatively new channel of customer interaction (social media platforms). This adaptation is not at a superficial level like having fans and followers. The ‘social media culture’ spans the organization across all levels and in all respects. The Bank’s Marketing team have been champions of the initiative in the true sense of the word. They have evangelised the importance of this initiative across the Bank. They determined early that having a strong and differentiated presence on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter will be essential to the Bank’s continued dominance by adapting to evolving consumer preferences. Bank of Baroda is an extremely strong brand cultivated over more than a century. The brand symbolises growth, strength and financial prudence by millions of customers across the world.