At the end of 2019 "Šiaulių bankas", 4th biggest Lithuanian bank went through its biggest rebrand in 20 years. Its goal was to communicate new bank positioning condensed into one word – CLOSER. Even though banks market share is way smaller than its competitors (mostly Scandinavian banks) it still manages to be the biggest bank for small business as well as keep an open biggest network of bank branches all across the country. Right from the beginning we knew, that rebrand should start from the inside: if employees believe it they will become the best advertising for the bank. So, we decided to show our employees what does it mean to be closer from various perspectives which might inspire them in everyday work and bring them closer to our customers. So, we created a short book compiled of short photo essays shot by photographer Tadas Kazakevičius (World Press Photo prize winner). Book also had it’s dedicated website where all the stories came alive and the book became a simple guide to quickly jump to the stories you want to hear. A most important part of the website was sound. It almost had no texts. Stories were told by intimate pictures of our subjects and short audio interviews where people were discussing what does it mean to be closer from their own perspective. And we made sure to bring various perspectives: from the deaf architect to twin sisters. The website design was kept extremely minimal so it wouldn‘t disturb you and help to concentrate on the most important part of it – sound. In the end, "Šiaulių bankas" employees not only learned to hear others but more importantly – listen.
