One of the most recurring questions that I had at the last marketing workshop was who is doing well in the industry, or at the very least within finance.
One company that I think are doing incredibly well are Goldman Sachs, over the last year or so they have made some big cultural changes which has been reflected and integrated in their marketing.
In July 2018 Goldman Sachs hired a new CEO, David Solomon, who is also a DJ (you can find his soundcloud here if you are curious) and with it a new vision for the company.
A few months later Goldman Sachs launched Marcus, a new savings account. This was very clever given that millennials are very good at saving, but very rarely dip their toes into investing. They also give you the best interest rate on the market for the first 12 months, and you can open it with just £1, which is very attractive the average millennial.
Another step that Goldman Sachs undertook earlier this year was to address (geddit?) the dress code at the company, introducing a ‘dress for your diary’ policy and putting full faith in their employees that they do need to be dictated to. The other great thing Goldman Sachs did with this announcement is engage with its social media audience creating a Twitter poll, and linking through to the news, as you can see they had over 1000 votes and great engagement.
Also pay close attention to how it’s worded, it’s much more informal with a bit of humour, steering the company away from the standard financial company image.
What should Goldman Sachs employees wear to work tomorrow? Asking for a friend… https://t.co/zFKNe4hyWf
— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) March 6, 2019
What Goldman Sachs also do well with is leading with topical initiatives, including their #LaunchWithGS and #WhenWomenLead series. Creating a range of content, mainly videos and behind the scenes, which really reinforces their commitment to the cause, as well as appealing to a brand new audience, or at least an audience that has been overlooked for a very long time in the finance industry.
WATCH: #LaunchWithGS is our commitment to invest $500 million in women-led companies and investment managers. Learn more and why it matters: https://t.co/k54GsOETXN pic.twitter.com/CCXlHsclN0
— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) March 14, 2019
#LaunchWithGS is proud to have partnered with the WomensVCFund II for last week’s Female Founders Panel. Special thanks to @theriveterco for the venue and to all of our panelists. Learn more about $GS‘ initiative to narrow the gender investing gap: https://t.co/jXaYTQBQn9 pic.twitter.com/AkzaFmsr5X
— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) January 25, 2019
Goldman Sachs have also utilised their Instagram Stories to promote their podcast on Spotify, what is great about this is you can tap
In conclusion what Goldman Sachs have achieved is essentially a complete culture change, embracing the new technology which so many of their workforce use on a daily basis and adapting to the current climate.
As an aside; I don’t actually think that the financial crash affected Goldman Sachs in the long run. The oldest millennials were in their early 20s and will have heard the company’s name mentioned on the news but not necessarily have paid too much attention to the details, the younger generation will have heard about them via films such as Karen Gillan’s line in the 2015 film The Big Short “he’s a Goldman”, their name cemented in popular culture, perhaps there really is no such thing as bad news?