Nedbank needed to infiltrate campuses to counter the perceptions in the 18 to 24-year-old market and exposing this group to its new and competitive Nedbank Dezign Banking Student Account. In addition, Nedbank wanted a campaign on campus that would generate sales leads.

Through a rigorous selection procedure, Youth Research Partner, Student Village helped Nedbank to identify and appoint students who were passionate about marketing the banking package on campus. The selected Brand Ambassadors were put through an intensive training course. They were then supplied with kits containing Puma gear to make sure they looked the part, digital cameras to capture their activities on campus, and airtime to keep them connected. Each was given a lead generation target, and was rewarded for reaching and exceeding these via a cool incentive scheme. Student Village provided guidance and support to both the client and all the brand ambassadors every step of the way.

Altogether 96 Brand Ambassador Students were deployed on 16 campuses, making this the largest brand ambassador campaign developed and delivered on to date by Student Village. The campaign generated over 8 000 sales leads for Nedbank. It also gave this client in-depth insights into banking trends and preferences in this target market. In addition, it generated significant goodwill towards the brand on campus.

Through this process Nedbank was able to identify (see more on fanspotting) and engage with the students that desire to choose financial services with a youthcentric bank.  Also, by letting young consumers represent the brand and help shape the marketing messages they quickly built trusted relationships vital in the acquisition of sales leads (see more on youthsourcing).

Nedbank Case Study

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