Bank of America realized that there needs to be more transparency when it comes to discussing the effectiveness, competence, sound policymaking, and accountability related to sustainability. The conversation around sustainable finance and even the understanding of what it is, is obsolete.

 

Therefore, our solution was simple. To help Bank of America increase the conversation around sustainable finance and showcase its leadership in the environmental, social and governance space, our idea was extremely straightforward -- create news.

 

We aimed to increase the conversation and promote involvement with a partner who is trusted and committed to uncovering how we transition our society to a healthier, more inclusive future. By reaching decision-makers around the world in fields like government, policy academics, community groups, media, politics and finance, we can increase awareness of sustainable finance to get more people talking about the funding and action needed to make a change.

 

Enter Financing a Sustainable Future, made in partnership with Insider, launched in March 2022.

​

​

Insider is a partner that is well known for reporting the latest in the sustainability space. Still, they also commented on how there was a severe gap in coverage when it came down to discussing sustainable finance and governance. Therefore, not only did we partner with them from a branded content perspective, but we made sure that the partner committed to getting the news out about this important topic through their editorial platform. Always on news coverage, all the time. This way, our target audience won't miss a beat in getting informed and seeing how Bank of America is financing change.

 

We took a platform-first approach to get the news to our target audience. However, I'm not talking about the traditional platforms that you may think. Well, we used those too, but these

platforms were more impactful. We told the story of sustainable finance through People, Planet, Prosperity, and Principles of Governance. The People pillar covers companies prioritizing

employees and community needs as a part of sustainability, investing in equity, well-being, and reskilling. The Planet pillar discusses the most visible topic in sustainability, discussing the

financial tools needed to move towards more sustainable operations for governments, private companies, nonprofits and more. Prosperity is all about topics covering economic resources that plan to move people forward for the long term. Finally, the principles of governance platform is about holding companies accountable -- discussing the strategies companies set to meet

sustainability and ethics goals so that we can really see what's being done, how it's being done, and the impact it's making.

​

The campaign launched over 200 assets (shown to your left). The results showed the impact that we made with our target audience:

• More than half of those who read the Insider content focused on had a positive perception of Bank of America, indicating they were receptive to the content.

• Social sentiment showed that users finally made the connection of Bank of America being a leader in the sustainable finance space.

• The Interactive explainer¹ created by Insider proved to be a successful piece as it had above benchmark site engagement rates.

• The events we created with Insider garnered over 129,000 views and over 3,200 engagements. The number of people who tuned in was some of the highest numbers Bank of America has seen for events created with a media partner. Globally, the events reached our target audience from the U.S. all the way to Asia-Pacific communities. 

• We ignited a council of 13 people from Fortune 500 companies that talked about what sustainable finance and sustainability means for the company causing a huge uproar in the business community and had them asking how they could join the conversation. 

• Finally, we made the topic of sustainable finance "fetch," creating daily news that kept it in people's news feeds on their social media from March to August of 2022.