Each January, government, business, and NGO leaders convene at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland 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.
In doing so, BofA aimed to drive favorable brand perception by making the WEF partnership and Responsible Growth efforts relatable to their audience by leaning into real-time social conversation and topically based opportunities through interactive social formats, online conversation and content developed in partnership with influential voices and brands.
We leveraged four pillars to showcase BofA’s commitment to Responsible Growth and own the conversation within the financial services category. By organizing teams both on-the-ground in Davos and in a control room in Boston, we created and deployed a combination of pre-planned and real-time content that placed BofA at the forefront of WEF for our audience:
- 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.
- BofA and Reuters co-created a custom video series to make priority topics relatable through documentary-style storytelling. The series, which was produced daily driven by the key topics discussed at the event, on-the-ground in Davos, followed influential WEF attendees and BofA Executives behind-the-scenes at Davos as they worked to bring global, regional, and industry change. The videos demonstrated how tangible progress is made at the event and positioned BofA as a force in accelerating global change. The series was distributed through Reuters and BofA social channels.
- Also, on-the-ground in Davos, BofA produced journalistic-style interviews with BofA executives and other 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.
- 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 real-time recorded and live video straight from on-the-ground at WEF featuring partners, executives, influential voices and WEF panelists. 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.
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 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
- +3.5pp lift in the belief that BofA helps address issues facing society among those who engaged with Reuters co-created content
- 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
Video for Bank of America, World Economic Forum (Davos)
