Staff Reporters
Jun 29, 2020

Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Chitravinee Vannakorn, Kasikornbank

By greenlighting memorably wacky advertising, plus a tie-up with K-pop girl group Blackpink, Chitravinee Vannakorn has helped an old-line Thai bank attract 15 million mobile users.

Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Chitravinee Vannakorn, Kasikornbank
SEE THE FULL 2020 POWER LIST
Asia-Pacific’s 50 most influential and purposeful marketers
#LeadersForGood
 

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.  

SEE THE FULL 2020 POWER LIST
Asia-Pacific’s 50 most influential and purposeful marketers
#LeadersForGood
 

 

Source:
Campaign Asia

Related Articles

Just Published

1 hour ago

Agency of the Year 2024: Greater China winners

Dentsu and Leo Burnett clinched key creative awards, Starcom shone in digital innovation, and Zenith solidified its media grip at the 2024 Greater China Agency of the Year Awards. See all the winners here.

10 hours ago

Campaign expands its coverage into Indonesia

The launch of its Bahasa Indonesia language publication bolsters Campaign’s global expansion, following new German and Canadian editions launched earlier this year.

12 hours ago

Spikes Asia 2025: In conversation with PR jury ...

As the CEO of MSL APAC and the Publicis Groupe global lead on Samsung, Key discusses the role of PR in brand success and gives advice to agencies submitting work for Spikes Asia.

14 hours ago

Creative Minds: Yuchien Wang on the path from ...

The copywriter and brand strategist had originally set out to be a classically trained cellist, even winning a place at the music academy in Taipei. But copywriting eventually won her heart.