We started out by conducting a survey to find out what Swedes think of household finances. And the answer was clear – it’s boring, or even super boring. And being a state-owned bank really adds to that perception. We decided to prove the Swedes wrong.

We set out on a quest to make household finances really fun. With the ultimate goal to make people pay to go see a comedy show about it. The mission was given to Swedish comedian Erik Haag. Then, we booked one of Sweden’s largest venues. Giving him 8 months to complete the absurd mission. And fill up 10 000 seats.

To create awareness for the campaign, the journey towards the big show was documented in a web series. The series focused on sharing Erik Haag’s anxiety with our audience – adding a nerve – would this venture succeed?

The first episode of the web series was released in March, announcing that we were doing a comedy show in Ericsson Globe about household finances – titled Household finances are really fun!

By doing so we gained a lot of publicity in the Swedish press (and a few dinner table conversations). The episodes were written around the progress of the show. At first Erik Haag really struggled but due to the success of the web series, eventually more Swedish top comedians joined in.

The episodes were advertised through SBAB‘s social media channels, banners, influencers, and trailer videos. To get that extra buzz for the show – we also ran an outdoor campaign to promote it.

All of our campaign goals was reached and beyond. Our web series reached over 4 million views (in a country with 10 million people). The show sold out – 10 000 tickets.

And we increased the following key metrics:

Total volume of retail mortgages 18 %

Site traffic 16,7 % (many months showed all time high figures)

Site conversions 27 % (target: 14 %)

Top of mind (mortgage loans) increased by 18 % (target: 8 %)

Brand preference increased by 11 % (target: 4 %)

And in a year when the bigger banks declined, SBAB was the big winner and increased their market share by 10 %.