Cat Delivery Service

Background

Sberbank was the largest bank in Russia. It wanted to show that although it was big it was also innovative and focused on its customers' needs.

Idea

In Russia, it was a time-honoured tradition that if a house was to be a happy home, then a cat should be the first to cross its threshold.

Any Sberbank customer who arranged a mortgage for their apartment or their house could also arrange to have a cat delivered to the address. Once the cat had entered the new abode, its new owners could move in, knowing that the bank had done everything possible to ensure their happiness.

To launch the campaign, a website was created, 'What sort of cat are you?' (www.kototest.ru) which rapidly became news in social networks. At the same time, cars and vans began appearing on Moscow streets, branded Sberbank Cat Delivery Service, which attracted attention.

A YouTube film was released showing cats bringing good luck to Sberbank customers.

Results

Over 1 million views of the YouTube video.

Our Thoughts

If cat videos are big, then it follows that if you come up with a cat-inspired idea you’re going to get traction. But, actually, what’s interesting about this idea is it shows a bank thinking about how its customers live their lives and, in a charming way, asking if it can play a small part in them. Compare and contrast with the advertising most banks put out, which is charmless and self- obsessed. As well as a million views, I hope this campaign led to an influx of new customers for Sberbank.