Danske Bank's wealthy clients flock to livestreams to interact with strategists and look for answers to corona crisis
Since March 2, Danske Bank Wealth Management's communication department has been streaming live videos for various client segments about the corona crisis and market turmoil
“Before the corona crisis, we did one or two videos per week. Videos were considered a great supplement to the regular customer communication," Marit Gjervan, who is responsible for video and livestreaming at Danske Bank Wealth Management, says to AMWatch.
"At the moment, videos are one of our main communication channels with our customers,” she adds.
Production level has doubled
The number of videos has more than doubled over the last couple of weeks and finding time for Marit Gjervan to do a short interview was no easy task.
Gjervan and her colleague Anders Sølling have been busy producing webinars and streaming videos live, either on Danske Bank’s website or Facebook page.
They are working with a skeleton production team - and remembering to keep their distance from each other.
“We started producing regular videos for our customers about corona and the drop on equity markets, but we quickly realized that although we were doing everything at high speed, we could not keep up with the market," Gjervan says.
"If we shot a video in the morning, edited it and added subtitles immediately after shooting and expected to publish the video either in the afternoon or the morning after, the content was outdated. Instead, we decided to do livestreaming via webinars,” she adds.
Record interest
Danske Bank clients seem to appreciate the increase in content. The number of viewers is on average 150 percent higher than before the corona crisis and one of the webinars on March 18 had a record high increase of 420 percent.
“Besides getting a lot of viewers, the amount of questions from the customers is much higher than normal," Gjervan explains.
"In a way, it changes the classic set up with a shot of one talking head as the webinars now almost seem like a dialogue,” she says, adding that the feedback from the customers is positive as well.
The typical script consists of a 10-15-minute update from either Global Chief Strategist Henrik Drusebjerg or Investment Strategist Lars Skovgaard Andersen. After the update, the viewers can ask the strategists questions.
Crisis experience is pivotal - even for an media trained strategist
Global Chief Strategist Henrik Drusebjerg is grateful that it is not his first time in the eye of a storm on the financial markets.
He has previously told AMWatch about how he started in his new role as a media spokesperson at Nordea just two weeks before Lehman Brothers collapsed and set off the financial crisis.
He became one of the most quoted specialists in the Danish media during that time.
“At the moment, we are experiencing things that we have never seen before - an aggressive virus spreading around the world and political reforms that we wouldn’t have dreamed of a month ago. But I’m relieved that I’ve been in a crisis before and that I’ve experienced this kind of volatility before,” says Drusebjerg to AMWatch.
He adds that the current markets are also very challenging from a professional perspective.
“We are now facing a test as investment advisors as we must prove to our customers that we are great advisors – also when markets are volatile and down. But I also think it is important to acknowledge that there are many things that cannot be answered. When facing customers, we need to make sure that we only try to answer the questions where we are certain we can add value,” Drusebjerg says.
Danske Wealth Management targets growing investment trends amid changing client demands
