Febelfin

Connecting with the Next Generation of Finance

Febelfin Academy, the leading training institute of the financial sector in Belgium, develops top-notch learning solutions for finance professionals. As an extension of their established activity scope, the organization decided to reach out to the younger generations in order to warm them up for the financial sector. We supported them in their war on talent with both an awareness campaign that presents career possibilities by reintroducing the financial sector and a banking simulation game organized in fifteen Universities of Applied Sciences across Belgium. Enter the Next Generation of Finance!

The popularity of the financial sector as a career choice has been drastically deteriorated. Due to many stereotypes the sector has to cope with, younger generations (millennials as well as Generation Zers) are questioning its attractiveness. Undeserved, because the financial sector develops fast and is a highly digitalized and innovative environment with many interesting career opportunities. And no, we are not only talking about the ones strictly related to working with digits. Maybe you are a real people person? In that case, the job Relationship Manager might be your calling. Are you rather a digital native? Then you will settle in as a Customer Journey Specialist. Really, there is a perfect match for everyone in finance!

“We are ready to take the financial sector to the next level and shake things up! Younger generations are definitely the missing piece of the puzzle.”

Ann Vanlommel - Managing Director at Febelfin Academyµ

Together with Febelfin Academy, we developed a concept that would allow the organization to connect with younger people by reaching out to them on their own terms. We launched both an awareness campaign (Be the Next Generation of Finance) and a banking simulation game for college students (Fin Competition). As the latter is part of the bigger awareness campaign, it gets a stronger framing. The whole concept is conceived in a way that it can serve as a long-term platform to connect with younger audiences over time.

Be the Next Generation of Finance

We wanted to address young people on their own terms, treating them as individuals full of potential whose input in the financial sector will be valuable. One way of doing that was to open up the black box of the financial sector. And guess what? You won’t come across bankers who are greedy and merciless. This is not The Wolf of Wall Street! By showing them what it really means to work there, we could not only debunk clichés, but also make them see that the financial sector can be building the future. We developed our communication framework around the tagline ‘Be the Next Generation of Finance’, which plays on both the progress and the generational change that young people can bring to the sector.

• The copy on the key visuals presents a set of bold statements that directly address the most common stereotypes in finance.
• We created a retro-futuristic universe with dynamic, 'progressive' fonts, bold colors and gradients, as a wink to the currently trending aesthetic. The chosen visual elements clearly hint at finance.

Once we had set the pace, we wanted to reach out to both high school seniors and college students in economics and inform them properly: Which competences does it take? How do you get started? What paths of development can you follow? We reshaped all those burning questions in an interactive quiz, called the ‘Five Filters of Finance’, that helped them in finding their perfect match in the financial sector. How? We carefully prepared seventeen questions about their personality and skills that covered the specific competences for five different kinds of jobs: Business & Planning Analyst, Relationship Manager, Customer Journey Specialist, Product Expert and Risk Officer. At the end, each participant knew exactly in which area of finance they would belong and got a thorough explanation of the profile, accompanied by testimonials of young professionals working in that area. The financial world was theirs to explore!

“We wanted to address young people on their own terms with the Next Generation of Finance and let them explore our sector from inside out, meet the real people behind the jobs, discover future-proof skills, and enjoy learning together.”

Caroline Van Geel - Marketing & Communication Manager at Febelfin Academy