Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Chitravinee Vannakorn, Kasikornbank

Chitravinee Vannakorn

First senior VP, integrated marketing communication department, strategy and analytics division
Kasikornbank
Thailand

With a string of quirky, can’t-look-away advertising campaigns, Chitravinee Vannakorn has played a key role in bringing Thailand’s Kasikornbank international recognition. This includes wins at Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia and a ‘brave brand’ designation from The Advertising Club of New York.

More importantly, she has been a key figure in driving the bank’s digital transformation and its ability to capture young mobile users. Once an old-school institution (it was established in 1945 as Thai Farmers Bank), Kasikornbank is now Thailand’s No. 1 digital bank, with 15 million mobile banking users.

In a market known for funny and weird advertising, it can be difficult for brands to make an impression, but Vannakorn signed off on two remarkable campaigns with GreyNJ United. Both ‘Friendshit’ and the followup ‘Face off’ lured viewers in with a ‘WTF is going on here?’ vibe before delivering ample laughs and product information. The latter work is especially impressive in that it prepared people for major upcoming changes in a familiar app—not an easy sell. By highlighting the app’s new AI functions the campaign helped deliver 3 million new downloads immediately after the launch.

More recently, Vannakorn scored a collaboration with K-Pop girl group Blackpink. Although our critic had some misgivings, the campaign was an undeniable coup in reaching the target audience; it resulted in a surge of more than 500,000 new accounts within the first four weeks.

On top of this marketing success, Vannakorn has also been a driver of diversity and inclusion at Kasikornbank. She’s credited with using her communication expertise to embed the importance of diversity—across genders, ages, races, ethnicities and social backgrounds—into the core of all internal communications. This has led to more international recognition, as KBank has been listed in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for two consecutive years.