In 1820, the first savings bank was founded in Sweden – which means that the savings bank concept celebrated 200 in 2020. The bank giant Swedbank, whose roots go back to the first savings bank, decided to celebrate the anniversary. Why and how they did it, Swedbank’s communications manager Johan Eriksson explained in a conversation with Anders Sjöman from the Center for Business History on 3 Dec 2020.
Their conversation spanned the general value of history, its specific commercial value for a company, how to use the power of history as a leverage for today’s business – and how to balance heritage communication with the everything else that a business has to communicate. Johan also gave examples of how Swedbank tactically told the history about the 200 year-old savings bank idea, under the theme “Forward then, forward now“. And all this during a year marked by the effects of the covid-pandemic. (Note: The film is in Swedish.)
