iShares Week
Barclays Global Investors
Issue 1 | July 2008
Agency
Personal
Creative Team
Richard Worrow;Jason Andrews;Michael Poole;Alan Mackie;Tony Haigh
Production Team
Danielle Bassil;Lynne Blackadder
Other Credits
Jason Andrews - Creative Director;Mel Hughes - Account Director;Emma Mallinder - Client
Date
May 2006
Background
BGI wanted to communicate the benefits of iShares to a very pin-striped B to B audience of wealthy successful investors.
Idea
In order to beat the stiff competition clamouring for the attention of this target audience, BGI realised they needed to make a bigger impression than through traditional channels and ideas. Instead of running a few ads a month they decided to concentrate their activity into one week. This allowed them to dominate the entire investment landscape. For that week they were everywhere.
Lenticular posters were placed in transport hubs for the main financial centres (eg Canary Wharf tube station in London). The copy of one says in Chinese: ‘Understand the Chinese market instantly’. As you walk past, this is translated into English, thus dramatising how the iShares China fund can get you into China instantly, without having to wait for the stock pickers and analysts. They didn’t limit themselves to billboards (or other traditional media). They chose media, such as sushi bars, that supported the message. They were unexpected, but also relevant. Sushi plates placed on sushi trains in the main financial hubs introduced the new Japanese funds from iShares. At Canary Wharf, the Itsu’s sushi train ran out of cards in a single lunch time.
The direct mail element was highly targeted. The hottest prospects received an iPod Nano, which was preloaded with a podcast from the iShares CEO. It capitalised on the word of mouth generated in the other media executions, using a medium that is revolutionising communication to deliver a product that is revolutionising investment. And where the media wasn’t there to support the message, they imported it. There were even yellow New York Cabs and Tokyo Cabs driving round the City of London with the line ‘where do you want to go?’
Results
The campaign resulted in more than 12 million website impressions. German web traffic went up by 1578%. In the Netherlands it went up by 549%. There were 17,690 visits to the iShares website - an increase of 200%. iShares is now Europe’s number one ETF provider.
Target Audience
Investors in major financial centres around the world
Size
Four countries, across 20 media channels, with 500 creative executions.