For BOK Financial, words matter as much as the numbers
A look inside why and how the bank launched a brand journalism site during the pandemic—and the coverage it’s attracted from the press.
Remember March’s GameStop investing frenzy? If you aren’t a financial expert, you were probably trying to find out how a group of people on Reddit could drive up the video game retailer’s stock by 1,500%.
Among the myriad stories, some of the most clearly written were found in The Statement, a “brand journalism” site published by BOK Financial.
“Those stories did really well,” says Sue Hermann, the financial company’s director of corporate communications and content. “Our investment management team was super responsive and willing to chat with us right away and explain the situation to us. It’s an example of a successful brand journalism approach. We were able to own that content.”
Brand journalism is different from content marketing, because it’s not marketing—It’s journalism. “Brandjo” as proponents often call it, requires communications professionals to think like publishers, editors, journalists, and web designers—a team coming together to tell fact-based news and feature stories with multiple sources. Yes, the stories are in the brand’s interests. But after that, you let the people and the facts tell the truth.
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