Winner: PNC Financial Services
Campaign: PNC Chairman's Challenge
Budget: $700,000
PNC CEO Jim Rohr brought an ambitious vision to the table in 2001. With the proper motivation, he said, PNC Financial Services Group could dramatically boost its sales. That
motivation would come in the form of a sweeping employee communications campaign that would turn virtually all of PNC's 14,000 employees into salespeople.
In October, the communications team - three people in the corporate communications office with support from each of PNC's regional markets - commissioned a study of more than
1,900 employees. They found that almost one-third felt they could not adequately describe the firm's services to potential customers, and 72 percent of non-sales employees had
never referred a customer. From that data was born the "Chairman's Challenge," an internal communications campaign aimed at driving new referrals from among PNC employees.
Since the Pittsburgh firm owns the naming rights to the Pittsburgh Pirates' new stadium, the communications team adopted a baseball theme, gathering employees for a kick-off
rally at the Pirates' stadium. Regions outside the Pittsburgh area participated via live satellite broadcast.
The kick-off was followed up with intranet communications spelling out the nuts and bolts of customer referrals. To encourage friendly competition among PNC's markets, the
communications team issued weekly "scorecards" charting new referrals. Employees drew prizes for their participation, ranging from vacation days to golf clubs and trips, all the
way up to a new $30,000 automobile. An intranet-based tracking system allowed employees to track the status of referrals they had made.
Net result: Seven of nine markets reported more than 60 percent employee participation in the program, and by January 2002, some 86 percent said they now had enough knowledge
to make an initial sell of PNC's products and services. More to the point, the program drew some 12,563 new customers with deposits of $85 million by the end of 2001.
Teamwork was key, says Patrick Capretto, director of internal communications. Capretto and Jeep Bryant, director of corporate communications, made it a point to involve
regional managers as well as the IT folks who crafted the innovative tracking solution.
(Contact: Pat Capretto, [email protected])