Gruber & Ianeselli won the BrandEx Silver Award in the Best Employee Event category at the International Festival of Brand Experience in Dortmund, with their project “Euses Quartier” for Zürcher Kantonalbank.

The employee event ‘Euses Quartier’ for Zürcher Kantonalbank included the conception, planning, and execution of the event for 4,000 employees of Zürcher Kantonalbank. The claim “The close bank” was meant to be experienced by all guests and further anchor the theme. With the brand promise “The close bank”, the bank also wanted to show that it stands geographically and emotionally closer to its customers – but also to all other stakeholders, such as employees – than any other company. As close as your own neighborhood. “The close bank” means that the bank is everywhere its customers call home. Thus, the fourth-largest bank nationwide is simultaneously a neighborhood bank. An establishment that, like the baker, the hairdresser, or the pharmacy, belongs in a well-mixed neighborhood.

The idea was to make the brand promise experienceable in a sympathetic way. Close means being emotionally and physically present for the customer. And how does one accomplish this with 4,000 employees? They built their own neighborhood in the center of Zurich, close to the bank’s headquarters, and integrated real customers as event actors. In a place where a corporate event had never taken place before.

The neighborhood theme ran through from A to Z. The invitation in the form of a neighborhood newspaper, the local weather report in TeleZüri’s TV studio, the attractions, the performances, the music, the catering, and the location: all actors came from the bank’s immediate surroundings.

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