CaixaBank : launches imaginCafé, a major cultural space for millennials

Maria Luisa Martínez Gistau, directora ejecutiva de Comunicación, Relaciones Institucionales, Marca y RSC; Juan Alcaraz, director general de CaixaBank, y Xavier Mas, director de Marketing de CaixaBank

• The bank is setting up a 1,200-square metre multipurpose facility in central Barcelona.

• The idea behind imaginCafé is to create a platform for online and offline content that is open to user participation and offers an extensive range of activities of interest to young people.

• Events will be open to the public, although imaginBank customers will have access to exclusive activities and special benefits.

CaixaBank is launching imaginCafé, a 1,200-square metre space that aims to become a touchstone for millennials. Inspiration for the project was drawn from the values behind the imaginBank brand, the mobile-only bank that CaixaBank created for young people.

imaginCafé will be located in the heart of Barcelona, at one of the city's hotspots for young people: Calle Pelayo number 11, by the crossroads with Calle Balmes and very close to Plaza Catalunya. The centre will officially open to the public on Wednesday 20 December.

imaginCafé will be the first space in Spain opened by a bank and aimed specifically at millennials, as part of a strategy of providing support to culture, young people, and business development.

According to CaixaBank's Managing Director, Juan Alcaraz, 'imaginCafé will be a truly disruptive experience, creating an entirely new foundation for relations between a bank and its young customers. The aim is to create a place where young people can discover new ideas and the latest trends, while also crafting experiences and reaching out to our customers in an unprecedented fashion. imaginCafé is also designed to be a place of creativity, where emerging talent will be encouraged to develop their own ideas and exhibit projects to the public. At imaginCafé we will create content that our customers and followers will be able to enjoy from anywhere in the world, without having to travel to the premises in Barcelona to form part of the imaginers family'.

Xavier Mas, CaixaBank's Chief Marketing Officer, described imaginCafé as 'a place where the 'imaginBank' brand is rendered tangible thanks to a blend of innovation, immediacy, the combination of the online and offline environments, interaction with users, and the interests of young people. All of which makes imaginCafé the perfect platform for imaginBank content, and a foundation to build innovative relations with customers. The way that we communicate with consumers, and particularly young people, has changed. ImaginBank is a response to the demands of this target market: more entertainment, more fun, more spaces for sharing and creating… Content represents the present and future of relations between brands and consumers'.

An extensive programme of events and support for young creators

imaginCafé will run a wide-ranging programme of initiatives, chiefly associated with technology, music and the creative industries. The activities scheduled to take part at the facility include concerts and live shows, gaming sessions, DJ sets, cinema screenings, video-art showcases, exhibitions, presentations, conferences, and so on.

The space will be open to anyone interested in the events, although there will be exclusive activities for imaginBank customers, as well as premium content and a variety of benefits and discounts.

ImaginCafé is divided into three floors, with specific zones for food and drink, exhibition spaces, giant screens for audio-visual exhibits, special areas for workshops and interactive training sessions, and an auditorium that can accommodate 250 people.

The centre will be open every day of the week. The timetable will be Sunday to Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Thursday to Saturday from 8 a.m. through to midnight.

A digital content platform

One core feature of the project is that everything that happens at the centre will have its online space, as the initiative is aimed at young people wherever they may be.

There will therefore be a website, www.imagin.cafe, with full information on all activities, and content before and during the same. Among other services, the site will allow users to view the schedule of activities and book tickets for events. Thanks to the digitisation of all initiatives run at imaginCafé, the website will also be an online content platform for young people.

Likewise, imaginCafé will have its own Facebook, Instagram and Twitter profiles (@imaginCafé and @imaginCafè_cat), providing information on activities and interacting with users.

Supported by leading brands

From the outset the multipurpose space will have the support of major brands interested in the project and its approach to innovation and creativity.

Samsung is a partner, and has equipped the space with powerful tech infrastructure, while Rodilla will run the imaginCafé catering space. ImaginCafé is also sponsored by Movistar and Adidas.

Likewise partnering on the initiative are ESL, Barcelona Tech City, and a number of educational institutions, such as SAE, Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

imaginBank, Spain's first ever mobile-only bank

CaixaBank launched imaginBank in January 2016, thus setting up the first bank in Spain designed for exclusive use via mobile apps and social networks, with the focus placed on the millennial target market. imaginBank now serves more than 500,000 customers, most of whom are under the age of 35.

The bank has benefitted from CaixaBank's full experience in harnessing new technologies in the financial industry, and has pioneered novel platforms in Spain, such as the customer information service chatbot, based on artificial intelligence, and the first ever virtual keyboard for sending money to others via instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

imaginBank has attracted international innovation awards, such as World's Best Technology Project 2016 prize from The Banker.