“The youth is our future”.
We take this phrase seriously, and our Youth team has realised that to build a prosperous future for the continent, young people need to be enabled to their Next. In other words, we partner with them on the journey to make their dreams real.
“Over the past few years, we’ve built meaningful connections with South Africa’s young people, so they can be empowered to build the future they want,” says Catherine Munjoma, Head of Digital & Interactive Marketing at Standard Bank.
“We know if they succeed, we all succeed.”
The main theme in the Youth team’s campaigns is their overarching theme, What’s Your Next? Through this, they connect with young people in a way that acknowledges the uniqueness of their individual personalities and ambitions.
In the last two years, Standard Bank has supported initiatives that have encouraged young people to reach for their goals:
In early 2017, #Today encouraged young people to pledge to start working on their Next “today”. Standard Bank wanted to dispel the narrative of procrastinating on your dreams with the promise of tomorrow. Many fulfilled their pledges such as Moonchild Sanelly’s online fashion brand, which is still going strong; Craig Stack pledged to connect the Cape Town electronic music community with upcoming artists and has hosted a number of events; and Hellen Seabi hosted a talk for young girls in her province and is still an inspiration for young women.
These are just a few of our success stories.
For Ultra Fest 2018, Standard Bank wanted to offer more than just sponsorship, they felt they needed to fire things up a notch. DJ ANG, Tiger Maremela, Junior Mabunda and Tiny T were given the chance to display their talents in front of thousands of people and alongside the giants of the SA music industry. They also attended a gala event, allowing them to network with top international and local DJs.
In December 2017, Standard Bank saw an opportunity of assisting a young, ambitious artist who had a dream to Fill Up FNB Stadium, something no SA artists have been able to do. The Standard Bank Youth team along with Cassper Nyovest went on to make history by enabling Cassper’s next filling up FNB Stadium with thousands of fans. Despite the event being at a venue branded by another player in the banking industry, Standard Bank decided that no matter how controversial the dream, being part of somebody’s Next is the top priority and in line with the brand’s promise of being there for our customer’s journey.
These campaigns have been major successes – for the youth and for Standard Bank. On 31 January, Standard Bank became the first SA bank to win silver in the annual POPAI Awards. The Youth team were acknowledged for their Levels entrepreneurship activations, a platform which connects students from campuses around the country with entrepreneurs, so they can move forward with their start-up dreams.
Standard Bank became the highest-ranked bank to receive an accolade for its efforts in ‘Telecommunications and Financial Services’, a new category launched by POPAI early in 2017. This did not mean the bank was about to stop in its efforts of increasing its support to entrepreneurship development. Recently, the bank partnered with Varsity Vibe, a discount app that links university students with money-saving deals from popular brands. With this partnership, Standard Bank is still committed to meeting the needs of young people.
“We’ve promised to drive growth throughout South Africa and the continent, but this can’t happen without empowering the youth,” says Munjoma.
“By giving them what they need, we can make sure they fulfil their goals and that, in turn, Africa can fulfil Hers.”
As the bank continues its endeavours at youth development, they are committed to coming along for the journey and enabling young people to reach their Next.
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