How to create a new brand identity: the making of a global campaign
Rebranding a company is no easy task. Neither is creating the campaign to support this change. But for those who worked on BBVA’s campaign to launch the new brand, it has been an absorbing and rewarding experience.
For more than nine months, the BBVA team responsible for this campaign worked closely with the bank’s internal creative agency, BBVA Creative, and the external agency, DDB. The objective was clear: to develop a global campaign to be launched simultaneously across BBVA’s operating footprint.
More than a hundred people from account teams, project management, and creative and production units were involved in the creative process. In addition, various qualitative and quantitative research activities were undertaken to ensure that the campaign was equally relevant across all countries, always keeping the customer perspective at the forefront of the decision-making.
Gonzalo González Solá, head of BBVA’s campaign, describes the sheer scale of the initiative, “Organizing a campaign of this size is extremely complex, because it required significant coordination between BBVA and the agencies with whom we worked. We produced more than 200 versions of the television campaign, adapted for different countries and media, and ended up with more than 150 digital examples of the final graphic artwork.”
Judging by the results, the effort was worth it.
Footage for the campaign was recorded in various locations over the course of five shoots. The Garlic Productions director Gabe Ibáñez says that the project was the most complex, the most challenging and ambitious, the most difficult, and at the same time the most fun project that they’ve ever taken on. “It was like a patchwork of styles, where traditional animation had a place alongside pure 3D, shooting at high speed in the studio and filming a composition of landscapes: we used a technocrane to film above a car, and also used hand-held reels on the streets in different cities,” Ibáñez explained.
The physical creation of the logo also had its particularities: rather than using 3D for its unveiling, a solid bronze version of the bank’s initials was commissioned in order to convey greater value by using real letters. Hundreds of ideas were tested in order to verify which worked best.
The filming of this process was entrusted to Yann Malka, who has 20 years experience filming product sequences using yogurt, chocolate, ice cream - filming the impact almonds make at high velocity. Heir apparent to Michel Malka, Yann is a master of post-production, which ensures an exceptional end product in these kinds of campaigns.
Judging by the results, the effort was worth it.