Stakeholder communication during a global crisis

UniCredit is a major pan-European bank headquartered in Italy. The Coronavirus outbreak created an unprecedented challenge as tens of thousands of employees had to work from home, while some branches remained open to maintain essential services. The bank had to address several urgent communications needs: to share important information, boost morale, and unite 85,000 employees in 13 European countries.

Approach

Working with UniCredit’s financial PR advisors, FinElk, Bladonmore developed an independent microsite as a content publishing solution to some of the communications issues that UniCredit was facing.

The One UniCredit site was designed, approved, built and launched in one week – complete with a video message from the CEO, numerous supporting articles and user-generated content.

The site was intended to provide company-wide updates to employees, plus tips on working from home and other issues, such as mental health and well-being. However, it was deliberately made available as a public resource to allow for easy access from home environments and to help communicate with a wider group of UniCredit stakeholders, including customers and communities.

Result

The microsite quickly became the go-to place to find important information about the bank’s response to the crisis, and about returning to offices and branches as the first lockdown eased. It was visited by over 145,000 unique users in its first six months and has had nearly 900,000 page views.

Feedback across the organisation and beyond has been extremely positive. The site remains live and regularly updated with Bladonmore working alongside FinElk on editorial strategy and content creation.

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