High Street Banks Brand Landscape

Executive Summary

To almost all UK high-street banks, sport is an important, if not key part of their strategy. Sport is a key driver in reaching large audiences and driving brand awareness. Associations between high-street banks and sport have typically gravitated towards traditional sports with large, fairly broad fan bases, such as men’s football, cricket and rugby​

In recent years behaviour has begun to shift in two key ways,  firstly, with sport playing an increasing role in corporate social responsibility as banks seek to retain access to local communities through sport to combat the impact of local branch closures. Secondly, as high-street banks continue to feel pressure from the emergence of app-based challenger banks, it becomes important for them to re-affirm values of trust, heritage and investment and protection of people.​

Most high-street banks activate in tandem with teams and events where branding can be extensive and relationships can be built with fans and audiences to demonstrate their values. For example, Virgin Money through their sponsorship of London Marathon created a 100% not for profit donation website solely for the London Marathon whereby participants could upload their preferred charity partners and gather donations via the platform. ​

Community involvement is also at the heart of many banks’ sports partnerships. With banks steadily closing a number of branches operating on UK high street and replacing them with online services, sport may be a way through which they can maintain a presence within communities whilst also driving brand awareness. ​

For example, Barclays, in collaboration with Youth Sport Trust, is the lead partner of the FA Girls’ Football Schools Partnerships (FAGFSP), a nationwide scheme to develop girls’ access to football. The initiative involves a network of hubs delivering bespoke FA programmes for local school networks, which will engage, excite and encourage girls to make football a part of their lives. ​

When it comes to approaching this sector, rights holders should think about the opportunities with which brands could activate within the community or broader corporate social responsibility campaigns that enable demonstration of values such as trust, respect and investment and protection of people.​

As high-street banks continue to be pressurised by the growth of challenger app-based retail banks, such as, Revolut, Monzo and N26, rights holders with assets which reach an under 30s demographic and have strong social engagement channels could be of interest to high-street banks concerned about erosion of their consumer base in this area.

Contents

• Executive Summary​
• Key Players​
• Sports Marketing​
• Brand Spotlight​
• Sponsorship Activation​
• Social Media​
• Visual Content​
• Trends

The High St Banks Brand Landscape is available via one of three packages which you can subscribe to by contacting Alex via alex@caytoo.co.uk or 020 3176 8131.

For an example of a full Brand Landscape, see our Sports Apparel and Footwear version.