SVB Employees Raise the Bar on 'Gangnam' Spoofs

SVB Financial Group has taken bank imitations of the most popular YouTube video, "Gangnam Style," to a whole new level.

Employees of the Santa Clara, Calif., company (SIVB) recently posted their own version of Gangnam Style, the pop dance hit from South Korean rapper Psy whose YouTube video was the first to hit a billion views.

SVB's version has been viewed only a little more than 200 times, but its dancers are well choreographed and drawn from its 33 offices across the world. The video includes staff from Beijing, Shanghai, Bangalore and London in addition to its U.S. locations.

Some of the senior level executives also appear, including the heads of human resources and global operations. One of the executives holds a "censored" sign during a Gangnam Style dance by two men in an elevator.

The video description says the project was meant to "show off [employees'] dance skills, teamwork and company pride." And nothing says that more than the man wearing a pink tutu and brightly colored lei while dancing in a park.

Each year, SVB shoots a video of pop-culture skits to show at its holiday parties, a spokeswoman said. But this year, when the company asked all its locations to send in a spoof of "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, the employees asked to do a Gangnam Style video instead, the spokeswoman said. About 75 employees participated.

Several other banks such as BBCN Bancorp (BBCN) in Los Angeles and Citizens Bank of Edmond in Oklahoma have done Gangnam Style videos as a way to reward employees. But the $22 billion-asset SVB's version is extensive, with explosive graphics and many participants.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why SVB made Fortune's '100 Best Companies to Work For' this year.

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