The SBCI is seeking to position itself as a wellknown and trusted part of the financial architecture of the Irish economy. As a newly established organisation the SBCI needs to raise awareness of its brand and the role it plays in delivering lower cost longer-term funding to SMEs in Ireland. It is also necessary for the SBCI to clearly communicate its on-lenders operating model. The SBCI needs to ensure its message reaches a wide range of audiences, ranging from individual SMEs and their advisors to industry and State bodies. Key to the achievement of this is the creation of a brand that is easily recognisable, relevant to SBCI core audiences, and achieves impact in a busy SME brand environment. The brand development process included customer and market research which resulted in the development of the SBCI logo and tagline of “Small businesses. Big plans”. In order to ensure that SMEs seek out SBCI products, a public awareness campaign was developed to market the SBCI’s own brand, products and programmes to SMEs. This comprised a marketing and promotional campaign and an outreach programme of attendance at trade shows, conferences and SME events throughout the country.

The marketing and promotional campaign commenced in February 2015 and comprised of a mix of radio, print and on-line media. The media plan was designed to reach more than 90% of all SMEs over the duration of the campaign and increase awareness of the SBCI. The Department of Finance Credit Demand Survey (30 September 2015) shows awareness of the SBCI as a Government support initiative at 23% of participating SMEs, demonstrating good progress in growing brand awareness in the SBCI's first six months of operation. In addition the SBCI has utilised social media channels, publishing case studies on LinkedIn and Twitter to promote the applicability of SBCI funding to SMEs.

Between March and December 2015 the SME outreach programme saw SBCI staff in attendance at more than 100 events at which they availed of 75 speaking opportunities.