Absa Bank: DESIGN INDABA

Credits & Description:

Type of entry: 360 Brand & Identity Experience

Category: Consumer Services

Advertiser: ABSA

Product/Service: SPONSORSHIP

Agency: THE JUPITER DRAWING ROOM JOHANNESBURG Johannesberg, SOUTH AFRICA



Executive Creative Director: Tom Cullinan (The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg)

Chief Creative Officer: Brad Reilly (The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg)

Creative Director: Dana Cohen (The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg)

Art Director: Mpumi Guliwe (The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg)

Copywriter: Jeff Tyser (The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg)

Electronic/Digital/New Media Producer: Wakhile Sithole (The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg)



Brief Explanation

The major challenge we faced was that our client is perceived as an "old and slow" financial institution. In the eyes of the fickle creative community that pay top dollar to attend the Design Indaba, Absa holds little relevance beyond their financial support that helps stage the event. Our key objective was therefore to manufacture a paradigm shift to one that portrays Absa as a forward thinking institution that embraces creativity, and particularly design, as part of its strategy to drive economic growth.



Describe the brief from the client

Our client, Absa, is one of South Africa's largest banks, and as such is a key player in the country's economic growth. They're also a regular sponsor of the Design Indaba, an annual design conference that celebrates the ingenious nature of design and creativity. This year, our client asked us to highlight their relevance to the conference by illustrating how design and creativity too, are crucial drivers for economic growth.





Design Process

In light of the above, we created a virtual country called the Democratic Republic of Design. Driven by a mobile app, delegates could contribute to its economic growth by sharing design and creativity. That earned them Design Dollars from which a leaderboard was established. Based on their earnings, delegates could buy items from our Concept Store. Inspired by our citizens (the delegates), the campaign logo was based on the proportions of Michelangelo's Vitruvian man. To explore the founding principles, the DNA, of our country, we created an exhibition of microscopic posters that featured various dissected elements of our deconstructed logo.





Results

The microscope exhibition was a popular topic of discussion, with curious delegates constantly milling around the area. The concept store also had more than its fair share of traffic with some delegates queuing up 2 hours before opening hours. Over the course of conference, 3 out of 4 delegates downloaded and interacted with the app. A total of 6301 tweets were sent, receiving more than 1300 likes, earning a total of D$1 172 000 (Design Dollars). In addition to screen-time on leading design blogs, it reached more than 29 000 people on Twitter with over 1 200 000 impressions.