Business ReportCorporate Sustainability6.08 % in 2009 (also the result of the unstable labour market, sinceunemployment in Slovenia rose by 50 %).In order to care for our employees, their health and well-being, aswell as socialising, we support the following activities: organizedsports events, subsidized cultural performances, various sportscompetitions, annual active participation in the Banking Games,summer picnic; and also through the sports association “Tilda”,which operates within the Bank framework and which has 422employee members (78 % of all employees), 15 students and 8retirees otherwise the services the Association provides are availableto all employees.Relationships with ClientsWhen forming and implementing the marketing strategy in2009, we adapted to specific conditions on the financial market.Many comprehensive marketing-communication activities weresuccessfully carried out. By using advertising campaigns and directmail we presented to select target segments our offer of savings andinsurance products, consumer loans, and various bank packages toencourage consumers to change their bank.As a member of the <strong>UniCredit</strong> Group, in autumn 2009 we becamea proud official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League for period2009 - 2012. Since sponsorship represents a powerful marketingand communication tool, we formed special offers for individualsegments and presented them to the existing and potential clientsthrough football-themed advertising campaigns, an internet contest“Reach your goal”, direct mail and promotion in branch offices andat events. Football fans could regularly see our brand at footballmatches, especially through their television sets, but some also live.Studies showed that football matches and football-themedadvertising campaigns efficiently increased awareness and brandrecall, and a<strong>dd</strong>itionally strengthened the <strong>UniCredit</strong> Bank brandpositioning, which is distinguished for being modern, innovative,different, and distinctively oriented towards active individuals whomthe Bank helps to achieve their wishes, ambitions, and goals.We organized numerous information session events for businesspartners of the Corporate Banking and Markets divisions.The most highly publicized event for clients was the meeting ofthe most reputable business partners and some of the most visiblerepresentatives of the Slovenian economy at Jable Castle, with whomwe opened important topics in the turbulent time of the financialcrisis and formed a common opinion on the relevance of variousprojects for the development of the Slovenian economy.The most visited events were “Financial Markets Breakfast” events,dedicated to the presentation of monetary instruments and interestrate movements on the local and international financial markets.Special focus was dedicated also to monetary policy of ECB insideand outside EMU. We organised a workshop for clients on the topicof international services in cooperation with Ernst&Young, training onthe topic of tax and financial consultation within business packagePlanet, and we also presented municipal infrastructure opportunitiesto mayors across Slovenia. In cooperation with the Chamber ofCraft of Slovenia, we presented the dangers and opportunities of thefinancial crisis mostly to small businesses in nine Slovenian cities.We rounded up the year with the traditional New Year’s concert bythe Slovenian Philharmonic.We continued to publish a magazine for clients, called Azimut, wherewe mixed professional topics with topics related to the lifestyle of amodern businessman.In 2009, as in previous years, we approached target segmentsthrough various communication channels and presented them withinnovative and tailor-made banking products. With modern marketingcommunications, we proved ourselves as a proactive and clientorientedbank. Media RelationsThe media is and will always remain one of the sources of informationmost trusted by the public and thus also our potential and existingclients. We are aware the media is an important factor when buildingthe recognition and reputation of the Bank. Results of researchshow that the authorship articles by journalists are four to seventimes more credible than paid advertising, which is why we strivein our communication with journalists for a proactive approach,professionalism, responses in line with set deadlines, availabilityof collocutors for giving statements and explanations, and thus tobuild long-term relationships with representatives of media houses.Good cooperation with the media was undoubtedly reflected also inincreased interest by the media for reporting on the Bank. In 2009,we received a total of 838 sets of journalist questions (in 2008:630, in 2007: 480). We kept the journalists updated on the eventsin the Bank through the entire year, and published information andphotographs on events and people also in the press centre on ourwebsite. In 2009, we a<strong>dd</strong>itionally increased our presence in themedia by taking an active and open approach but also because ofcurrent topics, within which the Bank appeared as a business partner.At the press conference in spring 2009, we presented to the media For several years now, we have been monitoring our clients’ satisfaction through PeopleSurvey research at the <strong>UniCredit</strong> Group level. You can find out more about the PeopleSurvey results in the chapter Bank’s Segment Performance Review, section Sales Support.156 2009 Annual Report · <strong>UniCredit</strong> Bank
our business results from 2008 and we also invited the journalistsfrom culture-focused media to a press conference during the visit ofthe Milan Scala ballet ensemble at the Ljubljana Summer Festival,where we included also the director of La Scala Balet and a selectionof ballet dancers, who performed in the show.Later, we invited Slovenian journalists to participate in the <strong>UniCredit</strong>Group’s project “Journalist award for reporting about CEE”. Weenabled two Slovenian journalists to be present at the EuromoneyConference in Vienna, which was supported also by the <strong>UniCredit</strong>Group. During the visit of Federico Ghizzoni, the Chairman of theSupervisory Board, we organised a meeting for journalists and weorganised another meeting with the Slovenian journalists duringthe visit of Doris Tomanek, the Human Resources Manager for CEEcountries, where the Group is present. In this manner, we enabledthe Slovenian journalists to have direct contact with the highestmanagement of the Group. We invited them actively also to certainevents for clients, especially those, where we talked about trends inthe economy. Positive response by the journalists was reflected alsoin an increased number of articles, and at the same time they alsoreceived contacts to help them in their daily work and collection ofinformation about the Group or market and trends in general.Relations with Local CommunitiesOn their own initiative, the Bank’s branches were independentlycommunicating with the local market, through a variety ofcommunication channels. Besides publishing and broadcastingplanned articles in local media, the branches also conducted localadvertising campaigns, events, direct marketing, and they madedonations to local organizations and individuals, participated insports and cultural events, and sponsored local fund raisers. Throughdirect mail and other activities, we contributed to the intensity ofcommunicating these activities and the Bank's offer.Sponsorships and DonationsIn the care for creating lasting value and further development, we areaware of the importance of responsible inclusion into the environmentin which we work. In 2009, sponsorships and donations continued tofollow the determined direction, especially in culture, aid to sociallyimpaired individuals and children, awareness of responsible behaviourtowards the environment, and sport on the national level and we alsoincluded our co-workers in those activities.Spring 2009 marked the launch of the Mini bus of joy, intendedfor socially impaired children in block apartment residential areasin Slovenia, and offering them help with learning, organisedgames and sporting activities but also conversation. We activelysupported humanitarian projects such as Red Noses (collectingwaste cartridges and money contributions in the Bank’s branchnetwork) and the Charity Bazaar of the Slovenian International LadiesAssociation (SILA). We also donated funds to the Vid HumanitarianInstitute. We joined a charity campaign “Children better than stockexchange gurus” by Moje Finance newspaper, in which donatedfunds are intended for socially impaired children under the auspicesof Slovenian Youth Friends Association.For the eighth successive year, we supported the SlovenianNumber of PUBLISHED articles ON THE BANK200520062007 2008 2009<strong>UniCredit</strong> Bank · 2009 Annual Report 157