Objectives

Each January, government, business, and NGO leaders convene at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland for four days to discuss pressing global issues. While the private sector plays a critical role in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), each year, conversations surface surrounding WEF’s impact, with a lack of understanding of the event by the general population.

In 2020, Bank of America (BofA) sought to transform the dialogue around sustainability into a storytelling experience and position BofA as a global thought leader all while showcasing the role BofA plays in the process towards accelerating change.   

By doing so, BofA aimed to drive favorable brand perception by making the WEF partnership and Responsible Growth efforts relatable to their audience through social discussion and content developed in partnership with influential voices.

Strategy and Execution

The Bank of America and key partner teams worked in advance, developing content and campaign playbooks outlining the real-time strategy. When the week of WEF came we worked to create, publish and amplify content, reaching key influencers on the ground and in the states, as well as topically based hand raisers. We leveraged four pillars to showcase BofA’s commitment to Responsible Growth and own the social conversation within the financial services category, placing BofA at the forefront of WEF for our audience.

• BofA was the first financial services brand to launch a live Twitter Event Page and the first brand to ever utilize the unit for multiple days. The Event Page hosted curated live and recorded video content developed alongside content partners, executives, influential voices and WEF. Within the Event Page, BofA hosted a Twitter Spotlight for 24 hours, owning the conversation during that day with a Promoted Trend, and ultimately paving the way for BofA to lead the WEF ’20 conversation.

• BofA and Reuters co-created a custom video series to make priority topics relatable through documentary-style storytelling. The series featured influential WEF attendees and BofA Executives behind-the-scenes at Davos to demonstrate how progress is made at the event, positioning BofA as a force in accelerating global change. The content was produced daily in Davos and distributed through Reuters and BofA social channels. 

• Also, on-the-ground in Davos, BofA produced journalistic-style interviews with BofA executives and influential attendees to showcase their perspectives on key Davos topics. 30+ original videos were created and distributed by the BofA social, media and content teams during the week of Davos. Importantly, this content marketing tactic was used to announce and amplify CEO Brian Moynihan’s message that the Bank achieved Carbon Neutrality in early 2020.

• The BofA teams created and distributed 100+ pieces of content throughout the week, all living within interactive social formats developed in advanced and in-the-moment based off trending conversations. The Davos content all lived within interactive content formats on social ranging from conversation cards to polls, engaging infographics, and daily topically based recap moments that users could opt-into, all aimed to encourage audience participation in the Davos stories. These efforts drove continued conversation volume and positive brand sentiment throughout the week.

Results

By executing our four-pronged strategic approach, BofA led the WEF conversation:

• +4.6pp lift in brand favorability among those who engaged with content on Twitter
• #1 mentioned brand at Davos
• On-the-ground executives were more engaged in the social experience than ever before, with Anne Finucane as the 3rd most retweeted business leader during the event
• Despite negative social conversation in the financial services category, the team was able to develop reactive content that kept Bank of America out of the negative conversation all week, ultimately  driving positive brand sentiment to some of its highest levels, with a 4.4 out of 5
• Maintained an 86% share of voice among Financial Services companies, at one point peaking 95%
• Engaged 3x more influencers than ever before, translating into organic potential reach of 15MM
• 4.6MM Event Page video views
• Brian Moynihan’s Carbon Net Neutrality announcement received +4MM video videos and has the highest number of impressions BofA has seen all year, without any paid dollars
• +3.5pp lift in the belief that BofA helps address issues facing society among those who engaged with Reuters co-created content 

Media