“Žinių žygis” (Knowledge Quest) is the name of the pilot project launched last year by Swedbank in Lithuania, fintech and sustainable innovation centre Rockit, and the startup Aimera. During the project, an innovative marketing tool was used for teaching and transforming learning about everyday finance into an engaging challenge.
The aim of “Žinių žygis” is to help teenagers and young adults expand their financial knowledge. They could do this by solving questions in an educational game hosted by the online bank. This unique solution came from searching for new ways to garner interest in financial topics and helped partners build long-term relationships.
On untrodden paths
One of the conditions for a successful business is new technological and content solutions. Companies are looking for ways to reach existing and potential customers, and talk about what is important to them. These reasons led Swedbank to join the pilot project “Žinių žygis”.
“It is only natural that as a bank, our strength is knowledge and experience in the financial field. We want to share knowledge that will help our clients make the best financial decisions. This project showed us that we can still discover untested means of communication,” said Pavel Ladziato, Head of the Private Customer Division at Swedbank.
The technological solution for “Žinių žygis” was offered by the startup Aimera. Their “Challenger” platform is an innovative tool that can help engage consumers and even overcome the fear of the new. In exchange for points and prizes, users can provide information about themselves and their consumption habits, answer questions, test products safely, and share feedback. This platform became the basis of the educational game. Challenges for participants included everyday finance and other relevant topics: safety, saving and investment, borrowing, insurance, and sustainability.
United by home for startups
A special role in the project “Žinių žygis” was played by Rockit, which brings together a community of startups in Lithuania. Its main focus is sustainable innovation. Knowing well the innovative solutions that the startups united by the centre can offer, Rockit helped the project partners find each other.
“This pilot project was a great opportunity to reveal what we do best: encourage partnerships and cooperation. The Lithuanian ecosystem of startups is particularly active and can constantly offer innovative and attractive solutions. The already successful Challenger platform is one of them. It is so great that it found its place in financial education and helped the partner Swedbank achieve the goals set,” said Šarūnė Smalakytė, Head of Rockit.
“Žinių žygis” is the first project in which Rockit encouraged the integration of a bank and startup, so all partners of the project have gained experience in effectively working together.
A popular way to teach and learn
Not only a new technological solution has been applied in the pilot project, but there is also the popular gamification principle. It allows information to be provided in an interactive way, bringing learning closer to entertainment.
When applying gamification, tasks are presented, and participant engagement is encouraged by using levels, points, and other elements commonly found in games. This strategy is popular and widely used, for example, in language learning apps. Ilja Polivanov, the founder of one of the project partners, the Challenger platform, and the startup Aimera says that gamification is not a simple task.
“Gamifying learning is not the same as creating a mobile game. The information provided must be interesting, encourage curiosity, reward the user for their efforts, and all this should lead to the intended goal. The result of the gameplay is not limited to knowledge, but, as in this case, it is also a dialogue between the client and the organisation, development of a relationship,” said Mr. Polivanov.
Bank focus — not just adults
Introducing their youngest clients to everyday finance is one of the goals of Swedbank. The bank is consistently moving in this direction, offering classes in their “Finance Laboratory”, educational publications, video lessons.
The pilot project “Žinių žygis”, adding to the list of attractive and interactive tools used by the bank, was welcomed with open arms by young people. This is confirmed by the feedback and results.
“The data showed that the participants who logged in were very active, spending a lot of time on the challenges. As many as half of the participants did all the challenges presented. Our goal is to be interesting and relevant, so we are very happy to reach such a big group of young people and to offer them both knowledge and entertainment,” said Mr. Ladziato.