ING IS ON A MISSION TO SOLIDIFY ITS LEADERSHIP POSITION IN SUSTAINABLE FINANCE IN A COMPLEX GLOBAL MARKETPLACE.

ING is a global financial institution headquartered in Amsterdam, offering retail and wholesale banking services to customers in over 40 countries. ING Wholesale Banking (WB) is an important contributor to ING’s performance and has been helping clients across the world build successful businesses for more than 200 years.

Today, ING offers everyday transactions and strategic advice on international growth and sustainability transformation to large corporations, multinationals, and financial institutions. Sustainability is a core pillar of ING’s global strategy, and Wholesale Banking is considered to be one of the pioneers in sustainable finance.

In January 2020, ING launched a new brand strategy with the tagline “do your thing” to inspire customers to work hard and progress with whatever drives them most. To articulate this new brand positioning and build a reputation for ING WB with an emphasis on sustainability and innovation consistently across global markets, ING was looking for a media partner with scale and efficient reach to engage global C-level executives and C-suite influencers.

ING’s goal was to align with purposeful changemakers — those who are progressive, action-orientated, optimistic, committed to shaping a positive future, and have a strong affinity to sustainable investing — to show its commitment to building a more sustainable world. The ultimate business goal was to position ING WB as a trusted partner to changemakers who ignite, lead, and advocate for responsible business and sustainable change, globally.

WE CREATED A DIFFERENTIATED CONTENT PLATFORM TO HIGHLIGHT THE MOST INNOVATIVE STORIES IN SUSTAINABILITY FOR GLOBAL EXECUTIVES ON A SITE THEY FREQUENTLY VISIT.

ING WB chose to partner with Insider to create a differentiated content platform that would enhance the brand’s reputation as a leader in sustainable finance and a trusted partner for the changemakers in the boardroom. The partnership leveraged Insider’s scale with access to more than 200M monthly unique users, editorial influence, content creation, and distribution capabilities, powered by the 1st party targeting insights.

Insider’s 1st party data platform, SAGA, indicated that C-level executives across our platforms were 2.68x more likely to be readers of ‘100 People Transforming Business’ – Insider’s authoritative index of business transformation leaders who are driving positive change and innovation in their companies and their sectors.

With proven audience engagement around this business transformation and innovation content, Insider, together with ING WB, embarked on a nine-month-long collaboration to build an integrated marketing partnership anchored around the ‘100 People Transforming Business’ list.  In September 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business, we launched ‘Transforming Business’ – an editorial and custom content global platform to reach the audience

primed to embrace the message of sustainable transformation and innovation. Presented in an exclusive partnership with ING WB, this multidimensional editorial project expanded from the initial scope of 100 leaders to three lists of 100 people who have transformed the way they do business in the US, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The editorial lists were supported with a stream of original reporting and multimedia content to gain a deeper insight into the minds of these progressive individuals.

ING’s thought leadership content, seamlessly integrated around our editorial coverage, constituted a central pillar of the ‘Transforming Business’ platform. Insider Studios, Insider’s branded content team, created ‘Changemakers’ Playbook’, a content series that showcased ING WB’s thought leadership, innovation, and sector expertise. The content also aligned ING WB with some of the most innovative global leaders in industry sectors key to ING’s strategy: energy, food and agriculture, and transportation and logistics.

The partnership delivered more than 95M cross-platform impressions from September 2020 to May 2021 across ING’s 40 priority markets with a total campaign reach of more than 18M users. Users engaging with this campaign were 3.4x more likely than the average Insider reader to be C-suite executives at a large company.

The organic and social promotion saw nearly 300K active users engage with the “Changemakers Playbook” custom content series, with social engagement 112% times higher than Insider’s benchmarks and several standout content pieces achieving 3x times higher than Insider’s engaged time benchmark Social channels generated millions of additional impressions and nearly 50,000 social actions across editorial and custom content. Leaders selected for the Transforming Business lists were excited to amplify the program with their followers extending the potential reach of the campaign by 10M+

The brand study, conducted by Dynata, revealed that the partnership was highly effective in communicating ING’s unique proposition with a focus on sustainability and innovation, increasing brand awareness and consideration. ‘The Changemakers’ Playbook’ custom content series received high scores for being credible (89%), insightful (86%), and relevant (80% ), successfully building on ING’s positive reputation in the global marketplace. In addition, 83% of respondents said the content inspired them to learn how they could drive innovation for their company.