Campaign title: CETELEM-BNP PARIBAS MEDIA REPUTATION METRICS: Media KPIs to improve the brand positioning

Client/Entering Company: Cetelem- BNP Paribas

Company Name: Cecubo Group

Summary

Cetelem is BNP Paribas’ personal finance brand. It faces specific communication challenges, including:

  • The negative social reputation of the sector following the economic crisis
  • A need to differentiate the brand in a highly competitive, aggressive sector, possibly using powerful advertising

Cecubo Group initiated a survey and analysis scheme in order to:

  • Understand Cetelem’s previous media position
  • Draw up lines of action for its communication plan
  • Configure advanced KPIs to gauge the media reputation and manage the communication

Objective/Brief

Cetelem, a bank dedicated to the provision of consumer credit, is BNP Paribas’ personal finance brand. Its 20,000 employees service some 27 million clients in 30 countries across four continents.

According to public opinion studies commissioned by the company, awareness of Cetelem as a financial entity in relation to its competitors is very low; consumers were unable to identify the company’s services or its management’s objectives; and struggled to equate the company’s principles with those of other consumer finance companies.

Armed with this data, the communication department wanted to develop a communication plan that addressed the situation and, specifically, to:

  • Improve awareness of the company (Cetelem does not invest in advertising, relying instead on social media)
  • Differentiate the brand from other consumer finance entities, particularly those that offer quick credit

Cetelem tasked Cecubo Group with monitoring and analysing its communication activity in order to fulfil the following goals:

1. Previous analysis: benchmark analysis to establish its competitors’ media presence in terms of:

  • Media coverage
  • Developed subjects
  • Most influential media in the sector

2. Measure the effectiveness of the communication plan post launch
3. Monitor the company’s reputation using advanced KPIs
4. Provide analysis and data for Cetelem’s management: the approach adopted by Cecubo Group and Cetelem must justify the adopted differentiation strategy, based on tangible data

Strategy

Step 1: Media market initial study
We undertook a benchmarking study to create a media map of the consumer finance sector and to analyse Cetelem’s media position in relation to its direct competitors by turnover.
This initial study achieved the following outcomes:

  • The identification of the main journalists and an analysis of their approach to covering the sector
  • The full picture of competitor media coverage, including their communication messages, treatment of specific issues and participation in activities such as events

Cecubo Group then used these findings to make a series of recommendations covering Cetelem’s communication strategy, including key messages.

Step 2: Monitoring system:
Once the communication was underway, Cecubo Group and Cetelem created an alarm system called “Media observatory” to monitor the Cetelem brand in all media: press, radio and TV, plus online media and Spanish blogs.

Daily alerts keep the Cetelem team informed, while providing Cecubo Group with material for analysis.

Step 3: Interactive control panel daily updated
With the monitoring system up and running, the next step was the analysis, exclusively done by humans, of news and Cetelem footprints. This qualitative analysis addresses the knowledge needs of the communication department, while fulfilling the dual objective of establishing Cetelem’s reputational impact and assessing its communication activities.
The combination of daily analysis, advanced KPIs and the instantaneous updating of results, thanks to the interactive control panel, gives Cetelem the means to assess its reputational
image and the effectiveness of its communication in near real time.

Step 4: Consulting monthly reports
We submitted monthly reports containing the principal analysis results, aiming to detect any possible deviations from the indicators and proposing strategic recommendations in order to improve the results obtained.

Execution/Implementation

For Cetelem’s monitoring and analysis system, we used our proprietary Big Data Cecubo Metrics which in one platform provides access to all tracking information data, KPI evolution, data graphics and visualisation and consultancy reports.

We describe the execution of every part of the system as follows:

4.1 Benchmarking analysis
News about Cetelem and its main competitors by turnover (Santander, Cofidis, Caixabank and Bankinter) were collected from the main specialist economic media and analysed from two perspectives:
1. Quantitative view: share of voice
2. Qualitative view: the communication themes and hits developed by the competitors (sponsorships, presentations etc) were also studied, as well as messages and how journalists treated that communication.

The following conclusions were reached:

  • Competitors based their communication on issues relating to their business, their accounts and new products.
  • There was a lack of quality information and data regarding engagement between the company, society and the ongoing development of the sector that caught journalists’ and consumers’ attention.

4.2 Definition of strategic lines
In response to our recommendation, Cetelem developed a six-month communication plan that had the following features:

  • Promotion of Cetelem Observatory, reports published by the company every three months (to include monthly previews: “Cetelem pills”) about Spanish and European consumer habits covering general consumption, e-commerce and the car industry
  • Principal messages to transmit: humanitarian and committed bank; innovative, responsible credit pioneer in services and financial solutions

4.3 Monitoring system
With the communication plan working, Cecubo Metrics configured a monitoring system based on the gathering of news referencing Cetelem and the sector in press, radio, TV and online media. As part of this process, we also gathered important quantitative data: AVE, audience, space etc.

4.4 Information analysis
We created a human-driven system of data processing and analysis, in which individual news items are analysed against parameters agreed with Cetelem. We relegated quantitative elements, such as impacts and AVE, better to focus on the key qualitative elements, as follows:

  • Size of impact
  • Prominence of Cetelem
  • News items featuring Cetelem
  • Strategic topics of interest to Cetelem
  • Cetelem messages
  • Association with the BNP Paribas group brand: differentiation; humanitarian and committed bank; innovation and e-commerce; responsible credit lender; consumer credit specialist
  • Highlighted brand values: expertise and leadership; integrity and commitment; innovation; proximity-modesty-reliance
  • Author
  • Scope

4.5 Control panel creation and consulting monthly reports
To provide the correct data visualisation, Cetelem’s communication department designed a complete control panel based on the analysis:

A substantial data platform to visualise the main graphics and KPIs, and to do as many data exchanges as needed, also allowing access to the visualisation of the original news. Daily data updates provided the team with insights into the evolution of the communication. Cecubo Group submitted through its Cecubo Metrics platform monthly activity reports with the principal data obtained and the main red flags and recommendations.

Effectiveness of Assignment

Thanks to the collaboration between Cetelem and Cecubo Group, the project generated:

1. A system of advanced KPIs
2. Up-to-the-minute analysis to control, assess and react

5.1 Advanced KPIs
The advanced KPIs that allow Cetelem to control communication activity and its influence on the company’s operating results include:

  • Media Repercussion Indicator: analyses repercussions arising from media coverage. It also covers the importance and impact of the media involved
  • Communication Strategic Efficiency Indicator. When information published in the company corresponds with its communication strategy. We evaluate the topics, strategic messages and key attributes
  • Media Reputation Indicator. Assesses the impact and strategic efficiency over a given period. Six months after the start of the monitoring system, Cetelem decided to establish the KPI system as the key element of the communication department’s goals. Its analysis has become an important component in the company’s management meetings, both in Spain and in its headquarters in France.

5.2 Results and efficacy of the analysis system
The media analysis allowed Cetelem to demonstrate the penetration of the messages, as well as detect possible deviations. The multi-support analysis also allows the identification of the main media.

We decided to create two levels to measure the three advanced KPIs:

  • TOP 250: where the main Spanish national, regional and local media, and a major proportion of the specialist media, are covered
  • TOP 20: where we group the 20 main media of interest to Cetelem, which allows their team to target their public relations, with the following results:

During 2017, impacts in the TOP 20 grew 11 percent compared to 2016. The strategic effectiveness of communication grew more than 6 percent during the same period.

The KPIs have served to improve the impact of the Cetelem Observatory: The Media Repercussion Indicator grew more than than 4 percent between 2016 and 2017 (and by 8 percent if we analyse the Europe Consumption Observatory).

“In Cetelem, a quantitative analysis of impacts and AVE was not enough to understand how our communication was developing. We wanted analysis that allows us to know the values and messages that we are transmitting. Cecubo Group helped us to depict the necessary KPIs and its system lets us assess and compare the evolution of this communication, both as an internal tool and to present the performance of my department to other areas of the company.”
Joaquín Mouriz, Communication, Publicity and Brand Manager of Cetelem Spain.

The comprehensive control of the media reputation, core attributes and key messages articulated in the media achieved excellent results in opinion studies taken at the end of the six-month communication plan:

  • Brand acknowledgement increased by 15 percent
  • Association of Cetelem with other fast credit companies decreased by 12 percent
  • Association of Cetelem with innovation and responsible credit increased by 9 percent
  • The Cetelem Observatory acknowledgement increased by 23 percent
  • The percentage of people that associated Cetelem with security, a key attribute of the company’s strategy, also increased by 15 percent

In this way, the analysis system facilitated the ongoing evaluation of the company’s communication to achieve its desired positioning and media reputation improvement objectives.

These reputational indicators are now part of Cetelem/BNP Paribas’ general performance indicators.

Highlights

The measurement system facilitated:

  • A discursive analysis of the sector to detect communication gaps
  • More precise and targeted communication which has helped grow knowledge of the company and its market reputation
  • Preventing the communication going ‘off message’
  • The application of more advanced KPIs that offer more valuable insights than purely quantitative ones, such as AVE