ABOUT

The UK Private Banking landscape is cluttered with high street brands offering one-size-fits-all ‘McBanking’ products, and the more traditional Private Banks are seen as impenetrable mahogany-lined rooms for ‘squillionaires’.

Enter Investec. While traditional Private Banks typically appeal to those with ‘passive wealth’, Investec is very much focused on ‘active wealth’ – those who are not only actively building careers and companies, but are driven with a fundamental purpose in life: to problem solve, challenge conventions and have the courage of their convictions to see the journey through.

The creative idea was to capture the ‘Restless Spirit’ that sits at the heart of Investec and its customers, and to present this within a modern, aspirational context. We ask questions that only a ‘Restless Spirit’ would understand and ask our audience to Challenge Ordinary.

The campaign features pioneers of business and social purpose: Edwina Dunn, the co-founder of Dunnhumby, CEO of Starcount and founder of The Female Lead, and Jaimie Fuller, the chairman of the Australian sportswear company SKINS.

We chose Dunn and Fuller to join Investec’s roster of business ambassadors because of their background in championing causes with global resonance to help build awareness of universally relevant issues.

We created strong character portraits of our ambassadors in order to convey their restless spirited personality and the ‘glint in their eye’. Locations were crucial in creating a context of Tom Dixon’s modern luxury, with interiors combining traditional and contemporary styles, textures and colours.

Colour was also key. Vibrant highlights conveyed the playful irreverence of the brand and helped the subjects stand out. We worked with an up-and-coming sartorial designer (a Restless Spirit himself) to devise a bespoke wardrobe that suited each location, so the styling was clean, sharp and contemporary and the subject appeared part of the world that they inhabited.

Following on from our previous campaign, and to affirm their position as a modern aspirational brand, we created a series of outdoor digital and print executions that capture the restless spirit. Each ambassador hero-ed their own ad and will also appear in Investec Private Banking’s digital magazine, THE STAND, with video interviews and opinion-led articles that Challenge Ordinary.