The Creative Minds Platform

UniCredit Bank Romania designed a shared value program to address a business opportunity – an asset for brand differentiation& economic value. How? Through a platform supporting one of Europe’s fastest growing – but sadly one of Romania’s most undervalued sectors – the Cultural and Creative Industries.

Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) are one of the most dynamic segments of EU’s economy: bringing huge incomes to Europe’s economy (incomes of over 700 billion USD in 2016 according to EY), they remain mere Cinderellas of local economies, lacking state and private sector support alike. Supporting a developing area of economy is a matter of ensuring the sustainability of banking products and also of preparing creative businesses in order to receive financial/banking support.

Thus, we set out to create a framework to support long term development of the businesses in creative areas and involve at least 50% of relevant internal stakeholders in the program.

We designed a shared value program – business readiness of cultural & creative industry and sustainable value for the market – grow new opportunities in a sustainable manner.

We evaluated all business assets – experts, products, tools that could address this social need – support for creative industries and thus leverage new business opportunities. We designed a three step approach – 1. Awareness on the topic and showing success cases 2. Capacity building 3. Business change – Customized product.  

This is how the Creative Minds Platform came to life.

First, we gathered stories worth sharing – through the Romanian Stories online platform. Then, we designed a multi-stakeholder mentorship program, where high profile professionals shared their insights in an alternative school – The Academy of Creative Minds. We put a strong focus on internal stakeholder engagement, with as many as 14 high profile professionals joining the one-week mentorship program. Among them, 5 members of the bank’s board offered their support for the creative minds: The CEO, the Deputy CEO, the President of the Supervisory Board, the CFO and the Head of Retail. 10 other successful entrepreneurs or corporate professionals offered their support as mentors.

Then, we brought our business assets even closer to the needs of this industry. We developed the Creative Pack – a banking product designed for creative industries.

We sparked conversation and positioned UniCredit as the #BankofCreativeMinds, reaching a total audience of over 7 million Romanians. We engaged 14 mentors representing most of the bank’s retail departments to help one of Romania’s economy most valuable – and under-valued – sectors. More than 150 entrepreneurs applied for our mentorship program, covering more than 80% of the business areas registered as creative industries in Romania (9 out of the 11 sectors) Also more than 4.000 creative businesses now have a stronger business support through the Creative Pack. The bank also created a business opportunity, while helping creative entrepreneurs build& expand their businesses – in just one year after the launch, the Creative Pack amounted for almost 50% of the total packages sold.