The Collection Diary brought a comprehensive savings boom in Estonia!

SHORT SUMMARY

1 a nationwide savings boom, 15,500 participants, 90% of them active, over 40 pieces of very strong media coverage, unpaid media coverage worth almost 50,000 euros, and all while investing 0 euros in paid media! This is the January summary of the Collection Diary created by Swedbank.

If 10 years ago the national sport of Estonians was skiing, today it is saving.

The Collection Diary campaign gave the members of the target group the skills they really needed – budget planning, useful saving tips – and tens of thousands of euros saved. But most important, we were able to put a very large community to work towards a common goal. It’s more than just a PR campaign. It has a real impact on people’s lives.

THE STORY BEGINS…

For years, Swedbank’s Institute for Finances has contributed to increasing the monetary wisdom of Estonians, but traditional approaches were not enough to evoke real change. In 2018, the sad reality was that almost half of Estonian families lived from pay cheque to pay cheque.
In order to produce change, the problem had to be approached differently. First, in Estonia, we managed to create a truly active community with the Collection Diary Facebook group. We gave a life to a new movement, affecting the financial behavior of thousands.

Estonians have never spoken so honestly and publicly about their financial affairs.

How did we do it?

A TACTICAL PLAN

1 – We set a precise goal
2 – Using thorough research, we found an influencer who spoke precisely to the group we targeted.
3 – We set up a communication strategy: which topics would attract people the most in January 2018? Which channels should we use to share articles, and invite people to join the group? How can we do this in such a way that targets people with a serious interest? Bearing in mind the target group, we mapped the main channels and we developed an attractive messaging strategy.
4 – We found an exciting angle, which helped the influencer we involved present an intriguing challenge – can a family of five cope with a weekly food budget of only €50? This challenge also inspired people to put their management skills to the test, and thousands joined the challenge.
5 – We launched the influencer’s video and also used traditional PR opportunities to leverage the project, such as with agreements with TV and radio channels, as well as very intensive and consistent article writing, and writing and directing these to general media sources.

GOALS

• Bringing monetary wisdom to people
• Increasing the number of target group members through traditional media

TARGET GROUP

• 25+ women, those who want to save and collect money monthly, and who are interested in useful tips on how to do it with simple tools

PERIOD

Jan 6, 2018 to Jan 31, 2018

STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION

We used an integrated communication campaign to efficiently reach the target group we were interested in. In addition to the spokesperson of Swedbank’s Institute of Finances, we also included a well-known blogger, Mirjam Hunt, whose family-blog has stood out in promoting the same values. Together, we challenged people to reduce their food costs in January by at least 10%.
We used social media and traditional media to spread the message. In the first stage, we activated the followers of our influencer with her video. Then we created a Facebook event, where people could join the challenge: “In January I will reduce my food budget by 10%!”. At the same time, we began to design the content of the campaign very intensively, raising various issues. We covered all traditional Estonian media at the same time – television, radio, online and print media.
The formats of press releases, topical articles, and interviews were used. Every week we sent one to two summaries of the topics to the general media, which helped to arouse the interest of Estonian people in joining the group. And the results did not take long to arrive…

RESULTS

The membership of Collection Diary grew to 15,500 in one month, more than 90% of the members were actively involved in the group’s activities during that month. During this time more than 300 posts with valuable content were made in the group, more than 13,000 comments were written, and more than 30,000 likes were given!
Thanks to strategic communication, the group’s activities collected over 40 pieces of free media coverage in one month and interest is constantly growing! The group did not simply share valuable advice, but actually influenced people’s behavior.

In first month, which focused on optimizing food costs, people actually saved more than €10,000.

The amounts saved ranged from tens to hundreds of euros per household!

CREATIVITY, PLEASE HELP ME!

Who would have thought that the bank could create one of the largest social media communities in Estonia? The same bank, which many see as boring, old-fashioned, and greedy, united people to move towards a common goal with an actual budget of €0. But this is not the most important part. What really matters, is that it was possible to activate people to achieve real results. How many families have already been helped by the Collection Diary is probably a minor detail, compared to the impact it will have in the course of years.

PR budget up to 1,700 euros

RESULTS