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HSBC UK 'We are Not an Island' by J. Walter Thompson
There’s a growing pressure for companies to have a voice when it comes to issues that are important to their customers. HSBC has made a bold statement with its latest campaign. But did it go far enough?
Kara Melchers
Managing Editor, BITE Creativebrief
HSBC UK
A year on from introducing the ‘Together We Thrive’ brand promise for HSBC UK and subsequent ‘Global Citizen’ campaign, we are kicking off the new year with a bang launching our ‘We are Not an Island’ campaign.
- Agency:
- Wunderman Thompson, London
Disciplines
Integrated marketingSector
Financial Services
Bite Insight
The latest print campaign from J. Walter Thompson for HSBC celebrates elements of British life that we owe to the wider world. From Colombian coffee drinking to Swedish flat-pack assembling, We Are Not An Island continues the idea that we are all global citizens.
But many people saw the ad as an anti-Brexit statement, forcing HSBC to confirm its intentions were not political, but simply focused on the importance of being open and connected to the world. Yet it’s hard to believe in the current climate that Brexit doesn’t come into it.
In response to increasingly polarised societies many brands feel it’s their responsibility to encourage and celebrate multiculturalism and global unity. This campaign is an extension of HSBC’s wider ‘Together We Thrive’ and 'Global Citizen' initiatives. Such a bold statement coming from an industry at the centre of austerity should not be surprised at dividing opinion.
The versions of the ads running in Birmingham, Leeds, London and Manchester had much more positive feedback, using familiar local references to put each city at the heart of ‘something far far bigger’. The OOH and print ads elevated local pride and customs onto a bigger stage and shows each city that HSBC understands what they’re made of.
There’s a growing pressure for companies to have a voice when it comes to issues that are important to their customers. HSBC has made a bold statement with its latest campaign. But did it go far enough?
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