Discount Bank turns on its green credentials by turning off.

Discount Bank - Israel - Dim Thinking

Discount Bank in Israel declared itself a ‘Green Bank’ but rather than have this as a meaningless soundbite it sought a practical, long-term way to make a difference to global warming. Its solution was to create stickers reminding people to switch lights off and save energy.

Empty skyscrapers with their lights left on at night, consuming vast amounts of unnecessary electricity, are an all too common sight. Discount Bank knew that by taking simple steps it could make a big difference to the environment. It was also aware, however, that many campaigns of this type are over and forgotten almost as quickly as they are implemented, so it wanted to leave a permanent reminder for its staff to think ‘green’.

A sticker was placed over every light-switch in the Discount Bank tower – and in a financial skyscraper, that’s a lot of light-switches. At the top of the sticker was written ON, at the bottom OFF and in the middle, GLOBAL WARMING. The message being that when you switch on the light, you switch on global warming; when you switch off the light, you switch off global warming.

In just one day, the Discount Bank tower became a green tower. Every single employee is now exposed daily to the strong connection between electricity consumption and global warming, and can, using one small finger contribute to the effort to alleviate global warming.

BRAND: Discount Bank

BRAND OWNER: Discount Bank

CATEGORY: Financial

REGION: Israel

DATE: Sep 2009

MEDIA AGENCY: TBWA Chiat Day

MEDIA CHANNEL

Aircel boat – brand to the rescue?

Brands love telling consumers their products are lifesavers, but rarely does the claim hold as much water as when Aircel’s Mumbia billboard rescued stranded citizens during India’s monsoon season.

The weather can turn very quickly in India during monsoon season, often with fatal effects. Flash floods have claimed the lives of many in the past. It was this knowledge that prompted Aircel to attach a life-raft to its billboard, with the instructions: in case of an emergency, pull rope.

On July 15^th, flash flooding, as expected, occurred. The Milan Subway beneath Aircel’s billboard became virtually impassable. Six lucky Mumbians, taking advantage of Aircel’s foresight, cut the rope and rowed themselves to safety aboard Aircel’s branded dinghy.

The innovative idea gained major press coverage in India; Aircel was crediting with achieving where the government failed. It now plans to extend the billboard scheme to Delhi and KolKata as well.

In early July they tethered an inflatable dingy (complete with ‘cut rope in emergency’ instruction) to a billboard in an area of central Mumbai notorious for its flooding problems. Within a couple of weeks, it monsooned, the rope was cut and pedestrians were paddled to safety.

But hang on, this wasn’t an impulsive ‘power to the people’ moment, a second glance at the photos shows that blokes with Aircel branded t-shirts were in charge of the whole operation.In one way this is kind of sweet, the brand making sure that their boat was used properly to really help people – and in another way it makes me a bit cynical, with images in my head of a marketing team sat there waiting for the heavens to open so they could dispatch their branded team of helpers – plus of course a photographer to document it all.

Brilliant coverage achieved, but it all feels a little bit too planned and manipulative to really connect with cynical old me – then again I’m not exactly Aircel’s target audience – and I wasn’t the one getting my feet wet.

Aircel Boat - Innovative & Socially Responsible

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BRAND : Aircel

BRAND OWNER: Maxis communications

CATEGORY: Telecoms/ Mobile

REGION: India

DATE: Jul 2009

MEDIA OWNER: Primesite

MEDIA CHANNEL