HSBC Math of Life

Winner, Gold Effie 2010

The assignment: sell a pretty boring checking account. The timing: the world’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Um, okay.

Rather than avoid reality, or try to promise beyond it, we embraced it head on, and created a concept around what real people were doing to make their lives add up. Anchored by simple iconography, we played back the stories people told us, and connected them to the simple idea that every little thing counts. Hello, Plus Checking.

It was a 360 approach: digital, print, wild postings, radio, in-branch posters and brochures, even street teams passing out garden seeds and freezer cards.

The results: Kinda unbelievable — we finished nearly 300% to goal.

Be sure to watch the case video below.