ATB Financial
The Branch for Arts + Culture
The work: New initiative research, strategy, proposal, design, branding, building and leadership
Role: Founder and leader
the problem
Banking sucks for artists and non-profits. As for any creative entrepreneur, artist income can be spotty, often coming in fits and spurts (or at times, not at all). Grant funding can take eons to be paid out, and for creative businesses and non-profits, access to credit and debt is highly restricted.
From the bank’s perspective, its own inflexible tools for assessing credit worthiness simply fail to capture the full picture when it comes to gig-workers and non-profits.
After working as lead writer and strategist on the ATB Listens brand platform, Ben (a songwriter and musician himself) suggested to then-CEO Dave Mowat that the bank could do a better job of listening to creatives. Dave agreed, and swiftly leveled a challenge: You should do something about it.
the process
Supported by a pair of banking experts and a modest research budget, the work began. It included both quantitative evaluations of the creative industries and their needs and behaviours, as well as extensive focus groups and interviews with internal stakeholders (notably, retail credit and underwriting) as well as potential customers. The latter group included artists, arts organizations, film companies and arts and culture-related charity foundations.
Two important areas for improvement were identified.
CX: Members of our underserved segments hated the experience of banking. They felt judged, misunderstood and undervalued. The process was complex and opaque. Banking was boring and beige–why couldn’t it feel as collaborative and creative as their own practices?
Product: Banking simply didn’t work the way they needed it to. Credit evaluations didn’t fully rate their inconsistent income, even when the overall financial picture was strong. Income from grants and tax credits weren’t considered as the solid collateral that they were, and repayment schedules were needlessly inflexible and punitive.
the production
The most important part of the initiative’s marketing started early: building community. Even through the research phase, excitement for a potentially improved experience for artists and arts organizations grew. Well before solutions were in place, the fact that ATB was paying attention and trying to fix problems created great excitement and momentum.
That sense of community and belonging would ultimately prove vital to the work’s outcomes.
Detailed customer journeys were created for key segments, and design work began on product, space and experience.
A radically different physical footprint was imagined: what if, instead of suits, ties and fluorescent lights, our space was more like an arts studio and cafe, with spaces for creation and exhibition? What if it was beautiful? What if it was staffed by team members who looked and acted like their customers, possessing deep knowledge of their industries and lifestyles?
Two locations of the ATB Branch for Arts + Culture (usually referred to just as The Branch) opened in 2017. One was built into the lobby of the CKUA Radio headquarters in downtown Edmonton, one took up space in the ATB Stephen Avenue branch in Calgary.
The heart of the offering was its people. We found bankers who were artists themselves. Called “Culture Bankers”, they were dancers, actors, musicians, photographers…but all with solid knowledge of how banking did, and didn’t, work for their people. They were dually expert in personal and business banking, understanding that for creatives, there is no separation of the two.
We innovated around product, standing up the first local film financing offering in Alberta, leveraging the province’s tax credit system to rapidly deploy project financing for local producers. We reformulated credit adjudication to get mortgages to actors and help bridge art-makers to grant payouts. We made it easier for non-profits to access short-term credit to smooth out their payment schedules. We provided ethical, value-aligned investment options for large arts organizations and foundations.
How did we market it? In truth, it felt like we barely did. Aside from solution design, our customers did most of the work for us, spreading the word through communities and events for which we provided modest space and resourcing. The Branches themselves were hives of non-banking activity, hosting gallery shows, performances and industry-focused financial literacy workshops.
the proof
It takes a new bank branch an average of three-to-five years to become profitable. The Branch for Arts + Culture was in the black in under a year. Over 30 months, we built a deposit book of over $100M and had one of the lowest loan default rates in the organization.
The list of award winning films, plays and albums financed by The Branch is ever-growing.
Though COVID changed some of the interactive features of The Branch, the initiative is going strong today, providing a profitable solution to an underserved market while contributing lovely brand effects to the wider organization.
