Our big idea was new.citi.com, a blog styled site created to speak to influencers, to convince them about Citi’s role in America’s recovery and to present the company as transparent and accessible.new.citi.com featured videos and posts from CEO Vikram Pandit and other execs on hot-button topics like mortgage assistance, community lending and Citi’s corporate governance reforms.We drove influencer traffic to the blog via paid channels.

We used print selectively with publications like the Washington Post that spoke to policy makers.Search campaigns made topics from the blog easily accessible to target when in discovery mode. Carefully chosen content integrations allowed us to promote debate while protecting the brand:Politico.com’s The Arena, an invitation-only section for news reporters, leaders and lawmakers Economist.com’s debate series, positioning Citi at the heart of thought-provoking conversationCNN’s The Buzz, aligning with a macroeconomic theme of the day

New.citi.com received over 500,000 unique visitors to the site, phenomenal given we were only targeting active influencers (200,000+ in the US).The GNI tracking showcased a clear positive trend in sentiment towards Citi, shifting from an extremely negative one in the pre-campaign results. % of Negative comments- Jan 2010 (Control) – 37.5% - Feb (Microsite launch) – 27.5% - Mar (Advert launch) – 24%- Apr – 15%% of Positive comments- Jan 2010 (Control) – 21% - Feb (Microsite launch) – 20.5% - Mar (Advert launch) – 25%- Apr – 36%How the media reported on the bank was a key factor in influencing public opinion. News headlines of influential consumer and business press shifted noticeably.