What happened at the party of Banco de Bogota?

Banco de Bogotá, Colombia’s first bank with a history of over 150 years, faced a severe reputational crisis when an internal memo from the bank leaked on social media, triggering a corporate scandal.

The memo stated: “Thank you to all those who enjoyed the End of Year party in a civilized manner. Everyone else should stop and reflect on the behavior they exhibited during the party, which was tarnished by events that are now widely known by their coworkers and superiors.”

The leak unleashed a storm of gossip, mockery, and speculation about what might have happened at that party. We responded immediately to the crisis by releasing a traditional statement on social media, but it had an unexpected twist:

“The suspicions that posed a threat to our reputation, suggesting that we are a ‘party bank,’ were thoroughly addressed: Yes, we are.”

Bank of Bogota became a trending topic and surpassed the peak of the “”gossip”” conversation by 9 points. In one weekend the brand reached the same number of leads a paid campaign would in 30 days. We then leveraged the conversation to bring Bank of Bogota even closer to younger generations—we sponsored Colombia’s largest music festival and launched a party platform hosting concerts.

Truth Well Told: Bank of Bogota turned crisis into opportunity that reframed its brand from stodgy, veteran institution to a bank for Gen Z consumers typically attracted to fintechs and neobanks. The campaign achieved +3K interactions, reached +1.1M people, and 5.2M impressions, growing positive sentiment by 67%.