Republic betheONE

Identifying the Challenge

Republic Bank is the Caribbean region’s largest retail and commercial bank, the ‘Bank of America’ of the Caribbean region, with operations in territories including Trinidad & Tobago (headquarters), Guyana, Grenada, Suriname and Barbados. They also are unique in operating beyond the region’s shores as owners of a bank in Ghana.

For most financial institutions in the region, the October to December quarter is not only the first quarter of the fiscal year, but also the most important commercial quarter, given the seasonal propensity of Caribbean consumers to take loans during the Christmas period. At this time of year, all financial institutions market their products and services aggressively, which creates a marketing challenge of a cluttered space to break through and reach consumers.

Having worked with the brand for 2 years previously on this campaign, in 2017 we proactively approached the client with a campaign idea to focus on social good that could complement the typical product marketing approach. We believed that this could help them address the challenge of differentiating the brand from its competition in this congested period, as well as boost brand engagement and perception by taking a financial institution into contemporary dialogue and topics it would not normally engage in.

Creating the solution

In a world where consumers are overloaded by advertising, information and content, it’s even more important for brands to find ways to tell stories that are more relevant and interesting. Great brand storytelling can sell products, drive awareness and engagement and have powerful impacts.

Our proposed solution built on the bank’s long-standing commitment to positively impacting the communities it worked in through programs like Power to Make a Difference. The betheOne campaign would seek to immerse the bank’s customers and the wider community into a conversation about the power every individual has to do good and make the world a better place. The power everyone has to betheONE.

We crafted a connected story starting with a series of videos to introduce the idea of taking individual responsibility for doing good, followed by what we called ‘social experiment’ videos designed to explore choices people would make when faced with opportunities to do good. Finally we sought to showcase specific people and foundations that were doing good, to make people aware of positive work being done, and places they could volunteer.

Telling a Connected Story

The essential focus of our campaign was on connected storytelling. The campaign solution was built to initially work across social media with a mix of video, written and visual posts. The campaign was also designed to live beyond any one period of time, and transcend the digital medium to set the stage for connected storytelling and experiences on and offline. The high levels of public interest and formal recognition in the campaign in the form of Addy Awards in the first 4 months after launch are proof of the power of cross-channel storytelling and compelling content to drive brand goals.

The Results