The Sustainable Growth Columns
CONTEXT: We live in a world where business has become overly focused on growth at all costs, and financial institutions are no exception. Yet, while there’s a growing awareness about the need for sustainability, many banks claim ‘sustainable growth’, but few make it their focus. By contrast, Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) puts sustainable growth at the centre of everything they do.
CHALLENGE: Prove Nedbank CIB’s sustainable growth commitment and credentials to the country’s business leaders and invite them to join the bank in actively rebuilding a successful ‘post’-Covid South Africa. IDEA: Following a week of heated debate around the Medium-Term Budget Statement and doubts around government’s growth recovery plan, we took over the Business Day centre spread to create ‘The Sustainable Growth Columns’: a visual spectacle that ‘hijacked’ ordinary newspaper columns and turned them into growth graphs demonstrating Nedbank CIB’s commitment.
EXECUTION: By manipulating the newspaper’s regular fonts and article layouts, we used the power of art direction to turn a DPS open letter – detailing ten reasons why SA’s business leaders should join Nedbank CIB for the sustainable growth of the country – into a growth bar chart. The columns culminated in a provocative question: “Do you want a bank that talks sustainable growth, or a bank that walks it?” Article headlines made for quick scanning, while the full, justified bars of copy gave the impression of Nedbank’s vast expertise and work in the field – with the option to read them in-depth, winning over even the most detail-hungry skeptics and earning the piece an immediate feature on Bruce Whitfield’s ‘The Money Show’.
Bronze Loeries 2022 / Print – Tactical use of print / Nedbank CIB – Sustainable growth columns
