The SBCI is seeking to position itself as a well-known and trusted part of the financial architecture of the Irish economy. The SBCI continues its efforts to raise awareness of its brand and the role it plays in delivering lower cost, longer-term funding to SMEs across Ireland. It is also necessary for the SBCI to clearly communicate its on-lender 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. 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 continued through 2016 and was comprised of a mix of radio 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 2016) shows awareness of the SBCI as a government support initiative at 21% of participating SMEs, demonstrating good progress in continuing to grow brand awareness of the SBCI. 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 January and December 2016, the SME outreach programme saw SBCI staff in attendance at more than 40 events nationwide.