Advocacy Moments – when all you need is joy

Hunt for ideas

In the first phase of the project we sought out the most emotional moments of the client’s contact with the bank and thought of ways to surprise them. We came up with dozens of ideas, most of which however did not survive the second workshop. Only the ones we truly believed in made it to prototyping phase, including:

• Inviting clients to the employees party at O2 arena
• Matching our young clients’ first paychecks
• Cleaning a new house for the clients with mortgage loans
• One year worth of diapers supply and a breath monitor for expecting moms
• Upgrading selected clients to VIP Erste Premier program
• Paying the grocery bills for random clients

All these ideas then underwent 6 weeks of preparations and testing.

Test is best

Over these 6 weeks our initial optimism quickly faded. We hit unexpected barriers that we were unable to overcome – we realized we cannot identify clients receiving their first paychecks, selecting clients based on specific criteria was very lengthy and inviting clients for a party a week before it took place was unrealistic.

From a free lunch to the best idea

When all of the intended prototypes failed, it was obvious the new idea must be simple and relatively easy to test. And then it came – a courier delivered a lunch to our colleague which she did not order. And the idea was born – surprise clients at work with a gift delivery. We bought flowers, sweets and other gifts and went on to surprise them.

In the end we were also able to test the house cleaning, diapers and breath monitors distribution and an upgrade to Erste Premier. However, it was the surprise gifts that were the most successful. So we moved on with it and decided to test it on 50 more clients with the aim to get at least 20 shares.

When joy is enough

It was a success again – from 47 clients who received a gift 22 spontaneously shared this experience on social networks using #prekvapkoodsporky. 663 likes and hashtags like #azdopracedonesene, #dostalime and #neverimjesteted reminded us that simple but well thought out idea based on emotions can easily surpass other favorites. Based on these results, the project moved to the next phase which is now being realized by Česká spořitelna alone.