Nationwide didn’t need a marketing gimmick to stand out from other financial institutes. They just needed to be themselves, a member-owned Building Society founded over 170 years ago on the principle of helping ordinary people to come together to accomplish something they could not achieve alone.
Whether it was to save for a rainy day or to fulfil an ambition to own a home of their own, giving a voice to ordinary people to help them achieve their ambitions is deep in Nationwide’s roots. And that’s why, for their latest campaign, we helped them take things back to basics, and celebrate the voices of ordinary people speaking up for what matters to them in today’s society.
Spoken word poetry is a tradition that goes back centuries, with the last few years seeing the emergence of a talented, new era of performance poets. Their honest and articulate lyrics, matched with their passionate delivery has re-invented poetry for a whole new generation. These amazing artists have become the voices of our campaign. Writing and performing poems that tell stories of everyday life, that express the enduring values that exist between the young and older generations. The poems end with simple titles and a bold sign-off, ‘14 million members, building society, nationwide.’
With the support of a brave client, we worked with three young poets to create a trio TV ads, with Hollie McNish’s poem about her relationship with her daughter, ‘Little Things’ playing out in the X-Factor, for its full two minutes. Debate around the ad sparked an organic Twitter trend, with the Saturday evening TV audience sharing their feelings; some people loved it and some hated it, the majority found themselves crying. Spoken word poetry is a tradition that goes back centuries, with the last few years seeing the emergence of a talented, new era of performance poets. Their honest and articulate lyrics, matched with their passionate delivery has re-invented poetry for a whole new generation. These amazing artists have become the voices of our campaign. Writing and performing poems that tell stories of everyday life, that express the enduring values that exist between the young and older generations. The poems end with simple titles and a bold sign-off, ‘14 million members, building society, nationwide.’
Since then we’ve created dozens of ads, working with poets from all over the UK. We’ve also created idents for ITV featuring nearly 100 micro-poems, press ads and social in a fully integrated campaign, still going strong.