FIGHTING FINANCIAL CRIME

TitleFIGHTING FINANCIAL CRIME
BrandHSBC
Product/ServiceHSBC
Category B06. Internal Communications & Employee Engagement
Entrant HSBC London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation MERCHANTCANTOS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation 2 HSBC London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR HSBC London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production MERCHANTCANTOS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2 HSBC London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Sarah Lawrence HSBC Head of Creative Production
Nat Low MerchantCantos Executive Producer
Margaret Giles MerchantCantos Senior Producer
Jenny Varley HSBC ‎Global Head of Digital Communications

The Campaign

The core of the creative idea is “show, don’t tell”. Rather than talking-head experts or interviews with senior bank staff, the team wanted convicted financial criminals to talk first-hand about financial crime. To reveal how they work and how they can be stopped by inquisitive bank staff at all levels. The idea was to produce shocking and honest films that would catch the attention of employees and help them get inside the mind of a financial criminal. The team then had to convince the bank’s senior management that engaging directly with convicted criminals was a good idea. This was no easy task considering the bank is under a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice. There was considerable resistance but the team persisted and managed to secure full support from the Group Chief Executive.

Execution

This was a very complex project to execute. Finding appropriate criminals was a serious challenge. The HSBC commercial bank asked the team to focus on accounting frauds. After extensive research the producers found an accounting fraudster who had used false documents to commit one of the USA’s biggest ever frauds. He explained how inquisitive bank staff could have easily spotted his crime just by asking simple questions. The team then focused on human trafficking, a major issue for retail banking. The UK’s leading anti-trafficking charity said they knew of nobody who had ever found a trafficker who would go on camera. The team persisted. Producers travelled to Montenegro and located a former trafficker. He revealed how he used the banking system to enslave his victims and how banks could have stopped him. The completed films were distributed across the bank and in team meetings in every branch and office worldwide.

MEDIA OUTPUTS On the HSBC intranet, these films achieved record audience figures. Each one was watched more than 100,000 times. The films were also played in every team meeting worldwide so staff members could watch and discuss. TARGET AUDIENCE OUTCOMES The films yielded strong employee feedback: • “People are responding to the shock, honesty and transparency of it” Jim, HSBC Asia Pacific • “It is generating a real buzz … making people sit up and think.  It has brought ‘doing the right thing’ into focus” Ka Ho, HSBC Asia Pacific • “Procedures and E-learning are fine as tools, but this is so powerful to bring the message to life. It’s the real impact.” Jenny, HSBC UK • “Thought provoking, pitched perfectly, because it told the story, and that starts a movement.” Sean, HSBC UK The films were also praised externally including by the director of the EU’s law enforcement agency: “I am impressed by the initiative taken by HSBC to raise awareness among staff” …and by the UK’s leading anti-trafficking charity: “We have been very impressed and heartened by the commitment HSBC is showing to addressing the issue of modern slavery through its communications to staff”. BUSINESS OUTCOMES Because of the films, HSBC is changing its policies to make sure victims of human trafficking are helped as much as possible. The bank has also commissioned further films to cover subjects including drug trafficking, terrorist financing and bribery.

The Situation

This highly effective work is the result of a hard-fought battle by a small team at one of the world’s largest companies. HSBC’s Employee Insight and Communications team were tasked with re-energising the bank’s internal “Fighting Financial Crime” communications campaign. The team gathered support from senior executives and then produced something genuinely original in internal communications. They made courageous films that engaged directly with real financial criminals and asked a simple question: “how could we have stopped you?” The films had a significant impact internally at HSBC. Externally, they have even been praised by EU and UK law enforcement agencies.

The Strategy

The target audience for these two 10-minute films was HSBC's entire workforce of 230,000+ people. The strategy was to find criminals convicted of relevant crimes who would tell their story candidly. The proposed criminals had to have served time in prison for their crimes and we had to be confident they were not re-offending. Our initial target areas were retail and commercial banking. We wanted to find criminals who had operated in those areas and could have been caught by inquisitive bank staff. Once we had identified the criminals, a senior member of staff fronted each film and conducted in-depth interviews. These senior employees became heavily involved in the story and used what they learned to effect meaningful changes and improvements in the way HSBC fights financial crime.