The marketers at Banca Transilvania, says Sergiu Mircea (Head of Marketing & Communication), have just completed a copywriting training session, where they learned to write more empathetically, honestly and positively. Authenticity is one of the main challenges right now, Sergiu believes, and at BT we try to talk to customers the way we would to a close friend. And marketers not only need to feel a connection with the brand they work on, but also “to feel that the company fully trusts them and loves the way they promote it.”

When it comes to training, Sergiu says the course pack is quickly set aside in favor of exercises, debates and interactivity. Most of the time, in terms of facilitators and content, we lead with trust (except where certain aspects need to be emphasized), also because we don’t necessarily target “trainers” per se, but specialists who can also deliver in a training format.

 New pressures on the marketing department

We wouldn’t call them pressures so much as challenges. New things, new technologies and new tools keep appearing, but it depends how you look at them. For us at BT, they help :) Perhaps also because we have a young team with a lot of empowerment. For example, 5 years ago we weren’t that present on social media because, although social media was a rising star, it didn’t yet have full penetration in Romania. Even so, BT was one of the first banks to dare to communicate on social media, when, for example, Facebook was taking its first steps here.

It came naturally because we found the perfect place for human banking. As communicating on social media took off, we built even stronger capabilities and we’ve reached the highest engagement on Facebook and Instagram in the entire financial services industry.

Changes have also come as the importance of different marketing areas has shifted — we now focus on communications, social media, online, real-time, content development, events and community involvement. A few years ago we put more emphasis on TV and radio.

 The marketer’s skill set

A marketer’s skill set has always been complex because the job itself is complex and the requirements evolve quickly. Of course, it’s always mattered that we be creative, think in the customer’s shoes and promote products and services where the customer is. What has emerged in the meantime — and we think it’s very important — is authenticity and the way you communicate with those who are listening. Rather than a product brochure listing features, it’s better to tell clients how we really use it and why it helps us. In a way, credibility comes from authenticity. We try to talk to customers as if we were talking to a good friend, and that’s why it’s important that people in marketing feel good about the brand they work for, feel that the company fully trusts them and loves the way they promote it :)

 Identifying training needs: creativity, digital and more

It’s simple. We’re a 20-strong team in Cluj and Bucharest — communications and PR, online, social media, design, products, CSR, events, sports and more. Most of the time, we design training sessions by specialism, but we also run some shared ones. For example, since we mentioned authenticity above, we’ve just completed a copywriting training session that taught us to write empathetically, clearly, honestly and positively. “Creativity” is a fairly broad term, but it can be trained.

On digital, our team has an average age of 28 and they’re very professional at what they do. They take part in lots of events and seminars to stay up to date. As for spontaneity, that’s an area where we’ve felt a stronger need in the last 2 years. Now we make memes and we’re proud of it. Changes come from the market — from shifts in people’s perceptions and what they respond to now. It’s very important to speak their language. We run many internship programs, and one of the interns asked a very pertinent question: why do we call it a current account and not a bank account, or simply an account? The world is changing and, in a way, marketers are in the vanguard of that change. And that’s a very good thing.

 Training sessions

We tend to organize group training sessions with subject-matter specialists. We’ll be honest and say we don’t really use a “course pack” :) We like highly interactive training that goes beyond the “course materials” approach. Yes, it’s important to hear and retain the key points, but we’ve focused most on exercises. We took examples from our own campaigns and from other brands — “what to do” and “what not to do”. Why they worked, what the trigger was and how the promotion was done. Because the power of example, exactly as our parents told us when we were little, works — and it works well. That’s how we’ve built capability, especially by always knowing what’s happening in the field and trying to understand the business rationale.

 Working with facilitators

Most of the time, “we go on trust”. In other words, since we work with specialists, we usually go with their proposal. Of course, there are situations where we step in — for example, if we want to emphasize a certain aspect or concept. As for how we select them, more often than not we rely on recommendations from our partners, but we also do market research on the best specialists. We don’t necessarily believe in the training label as such, but in the idea of a specialist who can also run a training session — someone we can be sure we’ll learn from. Usually, we look at their work and results — the projects that speak for them, recommendations from BT friends and maybe even the “chemistry” on a given topic.

Interview for IQads.ro & Smark.ro (August 2019)