The old
Pier 1 shop at the corner of Yonge and Shuter got an odd new look two weeks ago, wrapped in signs advertising local businesses and entrepreneurs and directing passers-by to a Twitter identity, #whatisvalue, and a website of the same name. Unless you're especially colour sensitive you might not notice, without paying closer attention, that the orange belongs to the worldwide branding campaign of branch-less bank,
ING Direct.
"In keeping with our brand and what we stand for, we like to do things differently," says Peter Aceto, president and CEO of ING Direct Canada. "We're part of a community, and we wanted our first interaction with our community to be just that."
ING, which has rented the entire three-storey building on a long-term lease, intends to open a Save Your Money Cafe there towards the end of this year. But unlike similar cafes in Montreal, Calgary and
Vancouver, the Yonge and Shuter location will, in addition to coffee and tea served with a side of financial services tutorials, boast a second floor offering free office space for local entrepreneurs. The third floor will house a mini call centre, bringing several new jobs to the area.
The building will also feature free WiFi.
Designs for the approximately 10,000 square foot space are still being worked out, but ING decided to use the prominent frontage to further its aims while those details were being worked out, turning an otherwise vacant storefront into a potentially hub for corporate-client communications.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Aceto
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