DNB Ringvirkninger highlights how important Norwegian companies are for value creation and welfare both directly, through taxes and fees, and indirectly through purchasing goods and services from others. They illustrate this by showing how much each company’s tax contribution can finance public welfare like police, education and health care. According to DNB’s calculations, Brunvoll creates ripple effects worth 236 million NOK to society annually. This equals 60 police officers, 50 nurses and 1,000 births.
The commercial’s main character was former Brunvoll chairman, Arthur Brunvoll. He was unaware of the hidden cameras used in the film session, and thought he was meeting a DNB representative at a restaurant in Oslo to discuss financial matters.
“I was utterly stunned and had no idea about this at all. I was supposed to meet with the CFO of DNB, but that didn’t happen”, says Arthur Brunvoll to the newspaper Romsdals Budstikke.
However, he quickly realised that something was up.
“I was sent into the restaurant and given a cup of coffee while I waited for the CFO. Then, suddenly, Brunvoll advertisements started appearing on the TV screens inside, and the people in them began talking about me”, he says.
The Brunvoll advertisements at the restaurant had been filmed months in advance, in secret, and featured Brunvoll employees and the mayor of Molde, the city where Brunvoll’s main office is located. The other people seated in the restaurant were all actors. A hidden camera crew captured Arthur’s reactions as he became aware of the “Brunvoll advertisements”. Finally, Arthur was made aware that he was a part of DNB’s Ringvirkninger project, that Brunvoll was being honoured for its contributions to society, and that the set-up was captured by cameras.
“My first reaction is that I feel incredibly proud. At Brunvoll, maintaining strong relationships with the local community is part of our values. This shows that we have succeeded,” says Brunvoll.
The Brunvoll Group has hired more than 160 new employees over the last few years and is approaching two billion NOK in turnover. DNB has 250,000 corporate customers, so Brunvoll being featured in a large-scale national ad campaign is quite an honour.
“It is a family-owned local cornerstone company, and it’s great to highlight Brunvoll in a setting like this. They genuinely showcase how prominent Norwegian companies are within their local communities”, says Ole Erik Stavrum, Manager for corporate banking at DNB in Nordmøre and Romsdal.
Economic analysts at NyAnalyse have carried out the calculations behind DNB Ringvirkninger. The data are based on key figures from public records, financial statements of private companies, Statistics Norway’s input-output tables, and relevant tax and duty rates. The model used is called the Wider Economic Impact Model (WEI model). It provides a straightforward illustration of how a company generates positive economic effects on employment, taxes and duties, purchasing power, suppliers, and the broader economy. These activities create value at multiple levels, generating tax revenues for state and local authorities. These public revenues, in turn, help fund a wide range of welfare services.
