There are basic “protocols” that all First National Bank (FNB) Commercial staff must know (e.g. how to answer the telephone correctly and how to handle complaints).While this information is vitally important for staff to know, it’s rather boring to learn.In the past, staff would attend two days of tedious lectures. These seminars were very poorly attended, staff often left for a break and never returned.FNB asked us to address this problem and present the Protocol Training to staff in a more interesting way. We needed to engage staff, so that they would learn more, and therefore improve their business skills.

We created “Project Protocol”.

This incorporated an intranet-training programme for each protocol. The programme had to have an irreverent tone, to stand out and not be ordinary (boring) training.

Hence the Ninja theme. Our Ninja character appeared throughout FNB offices.

Our main campaign line was “Beat your boss” – which implied that¬ you can thump your boss (and your co-workers) in the online game, after passing the training.On launch day, we got live “Ninja” actors to invade the buildings. To keep up the momentum, we used innovative deskdrops and posters featuring the names of real staff members.

The complete training programme was completed by 59% of the Commercial staff. This was a great result, far exceeding client’s expectations (who in the past generally experienced a much lower response from online-driven training). Staff loved the cheekiness of the campaign and really embraced the Ninja attitude.The staff have visibly implemented what they learned, and therefore the campaign has had a positive impact on the business as a whole.The client commented: “I would never have put ‘fun’ and ‘protocols’ in the same sentence. But you guys managed it. We loved the campaign!”