Creative Strategy: Capitec #AskWhy

This is a case study for Creative Strategy: We got the Capitec Bank account because they regard themselves as a "Retail Bank" and 99c is a retail agency. Capitec Bank are knows for their no-nonsense functionality and low fees. But asides from this, they're non-traditionalists. They ask questions of the South African banking industry. Questions like: "Why do banks think it's ok to close at 3.30pm". And this is where it gets interesting because I bet you didn't know this: South African banks close at 3.30pm so they can start processing all the paper slips and forms you fill in, again and again and again. So at 3.30 they chase you out and they start capturing the data in the back office so their employees can leave at 5pm. Capitec uses a real-time digital system without paperwork. So they're faster and cheaper and stay open longer. Another thing that sets them apart is the interest they offer (a minimum of 4.25% on balance in transaction account - this isn't replicated by any other bank) and their simplicity and transparency. Read more about it in Butch Rice's article

All research pointed to the very obvious: "People hate wasting time banking".
No sh*t. So we believed they are ready to ask some questions: 
"Why do you close your door in my face at 3.30pm?"
"Why do you charge me high banking fees?"
"Why do I have to fill in the same forms over and over?"
"Why do I have to write my name when you can just use a biometric fingerprint reader?"

Because they are always questioning the banking status quo, it was a small step to a strategic positioning to AskWhy of the way we bank. 

It lent itself to very simple, very clear, communication:

If you can't bank after 3.30pm, #AskWhy
If you can't bank on Sunday, #AskWhy
If you don't get interest on the money in your transaction account, #AskWhy.

The creative that was eventually produced isn't worth sharing, so I'm not going to.

But I still think the creative strategy I came up with was solid.

Words for a Shop that sells words

Because I'm a reader, I wrote four long-copy ads about reading. We asked an illustrator to do it on spec, and he crafted this beautiful illustration. Beautiful but impossible to read as a narrative. This idea finally got made by my brave colleagues at Saatchi for their brave client Wordsworth Books and was awarded a Silver Eagle at the Eagles Print Awards in 2011. This is the original copy.

The Special Shelf

All books are different
. One tells you “Hey, I'm Fried Chicken”. So you binge, ignoring bloodshot eyes like the cancer warning on a cigarette pack.
 Another asks for exquisite care. These are the books which change you. And with the last word sealed by back cover, you weigh this wood-thing in your hands, the thoughts still alive inside you
, knowing to keep this one from garage sale, storage or charity shop. This one is for The Special Shelf. And as the book ages, 
the insights once so shockingly new
 mellows in your head, makes friends with your established thoughts.
 When you open it years later
 you find them settled, integrated with the regulars, the characters unpacked. 
And it feels like visiting the house you grew up in. 

Opening a book is like starting a relationship

You enter prepared to invest time, effort, and a certain fidelity. In return you want some kind of enrichment. “Happiness” even?  One of two things happen. 1) Page 50 rolls around and you find yourself estranged by sentences like irritating statements by a partner. You long for other words like other bodies. You give it the old favorite “It's not you, it's me” and you're over and out. But it's ok because at least you gave it your best shot. OR you hit "True Love" or as close to it as you will get. As you become more engaged, with every page it just gets better. Love exists, the chick-flicks were right! With every word the book turns itself to gold right there in your hands. You ask yourself how is it possible you didn't meet before, all those lonely nights you had to endure. And then you say “It doesn't matter because I have you now, like the vow says, to have and to hold.”

A little flash

Sometimes while reading, your attention escapes the page like a canary flying the coop. But you're still fluttering over the words, landing here and there. And then it happens. Pop! Through the eye and into the brain for a delicious synaptic explosion like a chocolate fudge ice-cream headache: A shiny new neural pathway forged in a brain scuffed by television: A combination of words put together just so. You marvel at the fact that you’ve spent 38 years on this earth and consumed a couple of million word combo's. But never this one. THIIIIIISSSS OOOOONE. Nothing less than a sentence-sized revelation. And you are grateful to the creator. And the world is new, for a minute or two. And you carry on, believing there will be more flares in the darkness.

The lender's dilemma

Own a good book and live on a knife edge: You want to force all your friends to read it. You want to clamp their heads in a vice and prop their eyelids open and sneak around with the eye drops and say. "Read that sentence. THAT SENTENCE! BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP!" And then one day, the request hits the fan: “So, that book you're always talking about, I'd love to read it ...” Dot dot freaking dot. You smile, but in your head you're doing a frantic credential check of this scumbag posing as your friend for the past 15 years. Somehow you always knew it would come to this. You shouldn't have snitched. But then you find yourself lying with a scary sincerity. “Someone else has it right now but I'd be happy to lie lie and lie some more.” You find that at some point you committed to these pages bound by glue to protect it from the jam-fingers, spine-benders and smudgers who call themselves family and friends. 

Crash

In Thailand, there are many scooters. There is also much booze. A fatal combination most of the time. We did this ad for the Thai Department of Health and Safety with Palm d'Or winning Bangkok production House "Phenomenon" and Thai director Thanonchai "Tor" Sornsriwichai. In Thai, the word "Chon" literally means "Crash". It's used to describe a car crash, and a way of saying "Cheers" (as in "Crash Glasses").  

Ad for slimmers coffee

A fun spot we conceptualised and shot with director and Thai advertising superhero Thanonchai Sornsriwichai.

Sorry Thailand Public Service Announcement

Unrest had been brewing in Thailand for a long time. From street-marches to public blood-shedding in front of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's house (image belongs to The Telegraph), it all finally came to a head in May 2010 in Bangkok when the government sent in the soldiers to break up a protest by the red-shirted Thaksin supporters, something the government said they wouldn't do. Thaksin himself, high-rolling billionaire politician and prime minister from 2001-2006, one-time Manchester City FC owner and "champion of the poor" was leading his civilian troops remotely from outside Thai borders, where he was hiding out from his sentence by Thai courts for fraud involving billions.

That move set off more than a month of riots in the capital known in the media as the "Battle for Bangkok". Total body count: 85 dead, 2000 injured. (The Thai Army vs the Red shirts was a bit like the Israeli army vs Palestinians, tanks vs bricks and burning tyres, fire crackers and home-made rocket launchers - see the video clip at the bottom)

After it was all over, the Thais were stunned. I remember sitting on public transport while a "Heal the World" type Thai pop song played on the screens inside the train with scenes of the devastation behind the singing pop stars. Every single Thai in the train looked at the screens and all of them looked close to tears. Kinda stupid of me, but only then did I realize what an impact it had on their society. They were absolutely stunned by this thing that almost tore them in two. The fact that it was Thai against Thai made it even worse. What made it even worse is that the Thais are quick to laugh and slow to anger, and violence is directly opposed to their religion of Buddhism.

As all political conflict, this was a lot more complicated than the "bad reds" against the "good yellows".

Our agency got a brief from a government agency to tell the Thai nation that even though things were looking bad, it would get better. The job had to be turned over fast. The process was quite remarkable, it turned into an inter-agency and interdisciplinary brainstorm: There were agency people, the director, a guy with a popular fashion label and many more thinkers.

Some notes on the context of the cultural context of this Public Service Announcement:
"35: The Thai police are notoriously corrupt
"42: as is Thai government
"47: in Bangkok, they are always digging up and repaving pavements. It's people in government awarding lucrative "construction" contracts to their friends etc or for kickbacks.
"48: unfinished public project entitled "Good Hope"
"53: Price-fixing and buying monopolies make the poor farmers poorer and the rich retailers richer.
61": Average Thai mentality is very much "let's have fun and leave running the country to the clever people". Thai media for the people isn't really educating, it's about movie stars and ghosts.
67": Buddhist monks involved in criminal cases
80": the oven coops are for fighting cocks, a favorite working-class pastime.

Even though this PSA was bound up in red tape by the Thai Censorship Board ("inflammatory content" etc), it aired on news programs and became an actuality discussion point in local and international press. On Youtube, the Thai version had over a million hits. People circulated it, and so most people who wanted to see it, could.

The "spirit of reconciliation" in which the ad was made was applauded by the Prime Minister's office, but of course they "could not interfere" with the decision of the Thai Censorship Committee. So in the meantime, this PSA lives on the web.

At Adfest 2011 the effort was rewarded with a Gold Film Lotus and a Lotus "Roots" Award for work in the social category.

In August 2011, Yingluk Shinawatra, leader of political party supported by the red shirts, was elected as Thailand's first female Prime Minister.