A shout out, interpreted as a provoke, that then degenerated into a meme battle between two of Kenya’s largest banks made for some light hearted ‘viewing’.
The battle saw Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) take on Cooperative Bank (Co-op) on Saturday March 23, in an episode reminiscient of childhood impishness.
KCB started it, making a slight dig at Co-op. The latter did not take it lying down.
And while the subsequent rejoinder from KCB brought an end to proceedings, it did make for a hearty round of “corporate jokes”, as one netizen commenting on the battle described it.
KCB’s firing shot saw the bank, ranked the largest lender in Kenya due to its assets, give a cheeky shout out to Co-op Bank.
https://twitter.com/KCBGroup/status/1109303758784073728
The tweet featured a woman peering over from her cubicle onto another. It was posted at 7am.
Co-op Bank, Kenya’s third largest bank (for now), responded nearly three and a half hours later, saying they were gifting their banking rivals a therapy session and hinting that KCB were seeking attention. Their message was put forward by a meditating Yoda — a character from the Star Wars franchise.
Mbona munaongelelea kwa fence lakini *AW pic.twitter.com/fKK86kcNpB
— KCB Group (@KCBGroup) March 23, 2019
KCB followed suit with a plea for Co-op Bank to jump the fence and speak to them on their side accompanying the message was a GIF of an Austin Powers character, Dr. Evil.
Co-op seemed to stop in their tracks. When no response was forthcoming, KCB tweeted at 3pm that whoever had hacked the Co-op Bank twitter account should continue to hold it in their possession.
"Mwenye amehack account ya @Coopbankenya abaki tu nayo 👏🏽😅" pic.twitter.com/wOuTSSKqyB
— KCB Group (@KCBGroup) March 23, 2019
While this meme battle elicited more friendly banter than mundane corporate posturing, it is still not yet clear why it took place anyway.
Judging from the comments of Twitter uses however, netizens seemed to imply that Co-op Bank does not respond to tweets with as much haste as KCB.
Wacha kupigia mbuzi guitar, hawajui ku tweet, tweeted them 3weeks ago till today no reply.. Pengine walishtuka mtu amewaongolesha😂😂
— Rodgers Wabito (@wabros) March 23, 2019
KCB Group has over 202,000 tweets, with over 302,000 followers on Twitter. The social media account follows over 19,800 tweeps.
Co-op Bank on the other hand has over 121,000 tweets, follows over 6,500 tweeps and is followed by over 279,000 people.
A survey released in January showed that KCB ranks as one the top 100 digital banks in the world, with a very high Kred influence which measures social media influence and engagement.
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