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Supporting Orange
“Our Orange charm offensive proved to be an excellent platform
for the bundled power of the new ING”
Linking a brand to football can be done two ways. One is throwing
everything ánd the kitchen sink at the public, making sure that the
brand’s involvement in the sport is etched into every last functioning
brain. ING chose to connect to football the relatively slow way, at a
safe distance without any related product campaigns running at the
same time as its Orange merger message.
On the football pitch colour is everything. To distinguish who is the
home team, the adversary or even the referee you need something
instantly recognisable to hold on to. Decisions are made in a split
second, game-breaking passes are given to flashes of uniforms in the
corner of an eye. Recognition breeds trust. Trust wins games. Just ask
ING’s Monique Opdam, Director of Communications, who tells us more
about how the ING brand managed to win the hearts of 8.1 million
Dutch clients during the European Football Championship of 2008.
How? By changing blue to orange. Monique continues: “Our Orange
charm offensive proved to be an excellent platform for the bundled
power of Postbank and ING Bank into the new ING”
The mother of courtships
Around May 2007 the announcement came that the ING Bank and
Postbank would join forces under the name ING. But before the two
icon brands become one in 2009, ING Bank’s and Postbank’s 8.1 million
bill holders should be allowed to grow accustomed to the idea that they
are going to be banking with another brand. A bank with a different
name, corporate identity and colour and with other attributes than the
consciously chosen bank they’re used to.
To lead the way, communication is channelled into three streams:
Postbank ING Bank & Postbank ING Bank
Blue Blue & Orange Lions Orange
Postbank’s brand values – Easy, Accessible, Clear - click nicely with
ING Bank and will largely be maintained, as they are exactly what ING
needs to complement its brand value Expertise. In order to render the
transition as smoothly as possible, ING developed an all-enveloping
strategy. A charm offensive, if you will, aiming to wow Postbank
clients into accepting ING as their new, trusted handler of finances.
All likeability generated in this prelude will cushion the imminent
integration.
Orange is the way to go Where Postbank’s brand values are directed at making banking
The brand decided to go with sport sponsoring. ING Bank had to accessible, ING adds expertise to the mix. These values were both
address its massive customer base, and only one game really qualified communicated in the campaign.
to cover them all: football, Holland’s number-one sport. A logical
move, especially since ING Bank has been inconspicuously sponsoring Golden goal
the Dutch squad for years. Before, ING Bank never felt the need for The European Championship campaign had no sales or turnover-related
above-the-line communication, but used the sponsorship mainly as a commercial targets. Ratings of its commercials and top of mind were
relationship management tool, an incentive as old as time. through the roof, though. “Measuring the campaign’s effect came with
a surprising result as well: nobody thought it was strange or unfitting
Times change, though. In the long run, the ING brand wants to claim that Postbank’s typecast Jan and Ellen appeared in an ING commercial
the colour orange and has fleshed out a number of steps to do so. together with the Dutch number-one football legend Johan Cruijff,”
Sharing a lion as a logo is a nice coincidence, of course! Monique says: Monique says.
“ING will visibly crank up its relationship with the Dutch team. By
associating with the Dutch Eleven the brand will generate sympathy The future is in Euro-nomics
and undivided attention, paving the way to tell the story about how The concept of ‘Euro-nomics’ – or EK-nomie in Dutch - is another
two banks will become one. The ING sponsorship of the Dutch eleven interesting part of ING’s communication strategy. For Euro 2008 the
is more relevant than any other partner of the Dutch Football Team,” brand called in their own football-related economic research. Euro-
according to Monique. “We share a colour, a lion and almost half of the nomics combines football with economic developments in society,
Dutch population that’s banking with us.” translating these into understandable issues for consumers and press.
Coolbrands: Maarten & Anouk in discussion with Monique Opdam
A challenge in its own right, since the Economics Department of ING
Tactical strike usually deals with issues like oil prices, interest rates and other heavy
The European Championship of 2008 proved to be a successful first economic issues.
step in the right direction. The brand ran a campaign in print and on
TV, subtly nuancing both its presence in the football madness as well Three weeks before Euro 2008’s kick-off the Dutch press was invited
as the planned merger. Magazines and newspapers had ads with a blue to the Euro-nomics debate, where the results of ING’s research were
and an orange lion, talking about the Dutch team at the tournament; presented interactively. The most talked-about Euro research tried to
dually interpretable copy that applied to the two brands merging and measure the value of football, by asking questions, such as: ‘how
the blue lion turning orange as well. The brand made sure that the much money the average European would be willing to lay down for
ads were totally in sync with the games at hand, hence slyly fitting the title?’. The results garnered a lot of attention, and we think we
its message into the subconscious world of its football-crazed public. know why. The Dutch were willing to pay 30 euros for the cup, while
They were the only advertiser who even had a special commercial for the Germans were the most generous with 80 euros at the ready. No
the loss in the quarter final. On television the big guns were called wonder we weren’t invited to the final.
in. Figureheads like Johan Cruijff, Jan Mulder and Ellen the funny
Postbank girl were filmed as they sat in the stadium, talking about Euro-nomics resulted in almost two hundred publications in a variety
Oranje’s next showdown. Incidentally, no other brand used current of media. “It’s steadily becoming a strong PR tool for ING, proving
rankings and games to the extent of ING’s effort. that banks and bank-related affairs are a whole lot less low-interest
than thought before,” Monique says. “This means that brands in the
Charm offensive campaign targets financial sector, and especially the bank sector, all have immense
Wooing new friends isn’t done over night, and you’d better come to potential to really start making a difference.”
the door with more than chocolates and roses alone. Therefore ING
carefully defined five goals that the campaign should achieve: 30,000 Orange ING Ambassadors
• Make the connection between ING Bank, Postbank and football; In order to instill the same lion’s pride internally, ING charmed the pants
• Link the colour orange to ING; off its 30,000 employees too. Or shirts, to be exact. A promotion with
• Generate likeability for the ING brand with former Postbank clients; personalised Orange T-shirts proved very popular, and incited a string
• Give Postbank and ING Bank clients the feeling that ING has no of other promotions within ING. And not just with spectacular give-
threshold; aways, mind you; among its own ING went at it with the same fervour
• Generate company pride with all ING employees. as in the outside world. It activated Euro-nomics with a Euro Quiz on
its already Orange-tinted intranet, served coffee and tea in squad-
adorned cups and organised penalty-shootouts at several branches,
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to name a couple. As a result, most employees were completely in
sync with ING’s concept concerning football sponsoring and considered
themselves true ING ambassadors, proud to be a part of the brand that
supported the Dutch Eleven.
Hospitality
ING’s hospitably programme around the games in Austria and
Switzerland is further fancified by the presence of Frits and Barbara
Barend. The expertly father and daughter played a huge role in
the hospitality around the European Championship, acting as hosts
for business relations that were invited to Austria and Switzerland.
Afterwards they undersigned ING Bank’s value expertise by discussing
each game at length and sharing their valued opinions exclusively with
the group.
Sponsor of Orange
The perfect addition to ING Bank’s sweeping TV presence and fixed
print moments could – and can – be found online. Its high-quality
web platform Sponsor of Orange (www.sponsorvanoranje.nl) featured
exclusive content, combining Euro-2008 facts and figures with
deepening input from the likes of footballer-cum-analyst Jan van
Halst and the aforementioned Frits and Barbara Barend. Naturally
Euro-nomics constituted one of the main draws, but the kids weren’t
forgotten either. For the young and young-at-heart the brand served
up several cool games and even went so far as to build its own ING
stadium in the famous Habbo Hotel.
Moving in with someone can be stressful, and the thought of familiari­
sing 8.1 million people with a new name and identity frankly takes
our breath away. ING has thought long and hard about the best way to
inform and excite the current Postbank and ING Bank clients about the
launch of the new ING in the beginning of 2009. Colour-coordination,
efficiency and patience are key words that apply to any move, be it
to new dwellings or financial institutions. One thing stands out in this
Euro-2008 campaign, however. By lowering the threshold to Postbank
and ING Bank customers through the power of football, it managed to
rally and cry among the ranks as an accepted, trusted member of its
target group. With this, ING successfully turned their new bank into a
warm home.
CEO ING Retail Nick Jue | Number of employees ING Retail
Netherlands 10,000 | Main target group Mass consumer and small to
medium-sized business | Primary advertising media TV, radio, print
and online