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With the explosion of social media many companies are attempting to figure out how to take advantage of the desire by people to chat, complain, gossip and opine online. The challenge has been in figuring out a way to allow the free flow of conversation while at the same time attaching value to a brand.
HSBC Bank is taking a stab at the opportunity with the launch this week of its “Values Campaign”. The bank has partnered with five prolific online commentators, who regularly post feedback to nymag.com, the digital home of New York Magazine. The commentators, Rebecarose2004, Wallfly, Martell1, ScottRose and till507, are now being paid to comment on topics which HSBC deems to be particularly relevant to New Yorkers: education, jobs, the environment and technology. The public, in turn, is invited to join in on the scrum.
“We want our customers to know that we listen to what’s important to them and that their values help inform the development of our products and services,” said Johanna Breman Tzur, head of brand and advertising for HSBC North America, in announcing the initiative. “New Yorkers are not shy about speaking their minds. Our new Values campaign has allowed us to listen to our current and future customers and has helped us to better understand their values and meet their needs.”
Companies are increasingly looking for ways to participate in the social media experience. Here on CIOZone, for example, leading technology firms like IBM and SAP have sponsored forums where community members can chat about technology trends, pose questions, or look for feedback. For the most part, however, those forums are aligned with the products or services offered by the company.
The HSBC initiative seems to take a new departure by creating forums not necessarily linked to banking. The bank, instead, wants to be seen as being part of a movement or supporting the voice of the community.
In addition to the online forum, HSBC is also sponsoring nymag.com’s video channel. The channel will post video content from a recent HSBC event at Madison Square Park in New York City, where people where invited to step onto a soapbox to express their values. An advertising campaign is also being launched using the image of the HSBC-logo emblazoned soapbox.
It will be interesting to see how successful this campaign becomes. At best, other companies will want to piggyback on its success with other variations. If it fails to generate much buzz, then at least HSBC will have gained some lessons it can take into its next campaign.
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