Bank Up: strategy and campaign pitch for a new bank

PremiumTrust is a new financial institution that set out to solve banking problems through innovation and speed of execution. Its brief was to position itself as a premium bank, in or above the league of the industry leaders, as it worked towards becoming the bank of choice on the continent.

This was a pitch. I left the agency shortly afterwards, so I can't say whether the campaign ran. The billboards, vehicles and screens shown here are mockups of the proposed creative.

I was the art director and graphic designer on the pitch and wrote the strategy document behind it, Disrupt DNA's content marketing proposal for PremiumTrust Bank.

The strategy started from a SWOT analysis and a map of the audience, from first-time account holders to people banking elsewhere and the unbanked. It defined the brand's personality as half Caregiver and half Creator: assuring and empathetic on one side, innovative and inspiring on the other.

The lead idea, Bank Up, came from the PremiumTrust logo, whose arrowhead points up and to the right. Bank Up stands for banking that moves upwards: progressive, innovative and liberating. It ran through three message lines: Go for Better, On to the Next Level and Dare for Better. A second idea, Premium Means Premium, set out what premium should mean in service, technology and people.

Beyond the print and outdoor work, the proposal included concepts for two TV commercials, radio scripts and a six-month plan across TV, radio, digital and social. One commercial, The Way Up, follows people at a turning point, from a hiker facing a steep climb to a patient learning to walk again.