The end of May saw HSBC UK champion internationalism in football, ambush UEFA’s finals and extend its ongoing ‘We Are Not An Island’ brand campaign by celebrating the first all English Champions League and Europa League finals.
Developed by creative agency Wunderman Thompson, this OOH campaign continues the pro-internationalism message by celebrating the diversity of the ‘all-English’ final.
Leveraging the first time in history that all four teams contesting UEFA’s two flagship European football finals were English, the csampaign rolled out ahead of the Liverpool v Spurs Champions League Final and the Arsenal v Chelsea Europa League Final.
Honouring the teams involved, the ad copy reads “Not just home to the beautiful game. You’re home to Gabonese golden Boots. A Belgian waltzing wizard. One of our own. And an Egyptian king. C’mon you played on European turf. Managed by a Spaniard, Italian, Argentine and a German. You’re not just the red, white and blue/ You are part of something far, far bigger.”
HSBC’s aims was, despite this being an achievement for English football and the Premier League, to remind people that it wouldn’t have haven’t without plenty of overseas help.
The objective being to remind the UK that it performs better when connected to something bigger.
Comment:
This is a tactical extension of the banking brand’s ongoing ‘We Are Not An Island’ multi-channel campaign.
This is spearheaded by a series of copy-led print and OOH executions celebrating strands of British life that are indebted to the nation’s expansive links to the wider world.
Localised billboards and print executions within the campaign have appeared in major cities across the UK: each features local references unique to the UK (like the formation of Oasis in Manchester) which directly and/or indirectly link to the current UK angst, confusion, conversation and turmoil over Brexit.
The bank’s ‘Together We Thrive’ initiative launched in January 2019, a year after first introducing it’s umbrella ‘Together We Thrive’ brand promise and ‘Global Citizen’ TV campaign HSBC launched its ‘We Are Not An Island’ campaign.
A neat, low latency responsive tweak to its ongoing, wider campaign, this is a smart thinking and opportunistic appropriation of a football event.
In the sports space, HSBC is more frequently linked to leveraging rugby
and golf,
but it’s marketers are clearly not so wedded to the identified target-aligned sports partnerships that they will ignore opportunities outside those sports when they arise.
Links:
HSBC
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hsbc
https://www.instagram.com/hsbc/
https://www.youtube.com/user/HSBC/custom
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/sponsorship/
Wunderman Thompson
https://www.wundermanthompson.com/
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