2021 Brand Experience & Activation

TOP OF THE BILL

TitleTOP OF THE BILL
BrandBNP PARIBAS
Product/ServiceBNP PARIBAS LOCAL BUSINESSES
Category E02. Sponsorship & Brand Partnership
Entrant HUNGRY AND FOOLISH Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation HUNGRY AND FOOLISH Paris, FRANCE
Media Placement HUNGRY AND FOOLISH Paris, FRANCE
Production HUNGRY AND FOOLISH Paris, FRANCE
Post Production HUNGRY AND FOOLISH Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
Matthieu Reinartz Hungry and Foolish CEO
Emmanuel François-Eugène Hungry and Foolish Creative Director
Pecard Alexandre Hungry and Foolish Account Director
Loïc Andriamiarina Hungry and Foolish Copywriter
Benoît Métivier Hungry and Foolish Art Director
Patricia Chemoul Hungry and Foolish Producer
Caroline Guillier Hungry and Foolish Project Manager
Enguerran Barreau Hungry and Foolish Head of Strategy
Marcel Hartmann Bandit Production photographer
Rage Man Rage Man RYSK Editor

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The whole idea of our campaign is focused on solidarity. The brand has been push to the background to put its customers in the spotlights. The concept gives to the brand a new expression, far from its usual media assets and offers the opportunity to build a strong bond with its clients and people in general. The background situation the brand put itself in was recognized by French medias and shown as a truly efficient action for the local shops and life of our cities centres.

Background

Since more than a year, the world has known one of its major health crisis. As a consequence, many countries, including France, had to declare lockdowns to break the epidemic. In France, cinemas have been closed for more than 8 months in the year. Shops seen as "unnecessary" have also been closed several times, for several months. As a consequence, people started to shop more and more online weakening the strong bond they had with their shops and craftspeople of their neighborhoods. During the whole year, shops, restaurants, hairdressers and many other have been facing enormous financial issues. That's why, more than ever, they need support from any type.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

To offer its shopkeepers unprecedented visibility, BNP Paribas, in partnership with the National Federation of French Cinemas has decided to use the billboards of closed cinemas to put them on the top of the bill. More than 40 shopkeepers were featured on movies posters that transformed them into superstars : Cobblers, grocers, record store owners… A dozen of cinemas across Paris, Lyon, Nice, Cannes, Strasbourg and Dijon were refashioned. To make the artwork look as authentic as possible, we worked with Cannes Film Festival photographer Marcel Hartmann and movie poster designer agency Rysk.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

BNP Paribas is involved in supporting small businesses of any kind since many years. Our target, small businesses (shops and craftspeople), is having one of its worst time in History. Even if some of them remain open, the measures taken to fight Covid-19 have narrowed down their especially if we consider the exceptional rise of online shopping during the period. The real stake here was to make the difference for the shops by telling to consumers to support their local businesses every day. City centre cinemas, which also suffer from the crises (closed for 9 months in total), are central places, in the heart of the cities. As they were facing the same difficulties, we took the opportunity to use their fronts in order to display local shopkeepers and craftspeople (all 500m close from each cinema). The operation took place in 6 big French cities.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The whole operation was produced in less than a month from BNP Paribas approval to the display on the cinemas. The first step was to determine which cinemas will participate. The help of the French Federation of Cinemas and big cinema companies like UGC or MK2 was decisive. 6 cities were chosen, throughout the country : Paris, Nice, Cannes, Strasbourg, Lyon and Dijon. The shooting took place in each city with the people selected within BNP Paribas’s clients. At total, 41 people were photographed by Marcel Hartmann (great Cannes Festival photographer). Once the pictures taken, Rysk, a specialist of film poster, created a dedicated creation for each shopkeeper or craftspeople. The posters were printed by the official film posters printer and displayed on cinemas in less than 3 days.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign knew a strong echo on social medias on the very day of the installation on the cinemas fronts. People shared visuals of the campaign and the machine was launched. Without even contacting them to deal a news, all major national TVs as TF1, M6, France Télévision, BFM, LCI and radios like RTL and Europe 1 talked about the campaign the day after it was displayed. With 0€ spent in medias, the campaign had exceptional results in social media as well : +3000 content published in 3 days, +25 million impressions in social media in 3 days, +40,000 interactions in less than 3 days. Very high engagement rates up to 17% depending on the network. A strong best case for the brand which never had such a strong press coverage in such a short time.