Since 1962, the D&AD (Designers & Art Directors) has been inspiring a community of creative thinkers by celebrating and stimulating the finest in design and advertising. The D&AD Awards are recognised globally as the ultimate creative accolade, entered and attended by the best from around the world.

But it's much more than just awards. Members join a vibrant global community, while creatives and clients are inspired by a world-class training programme.

About D&AD

Having already worked with the D&AD on their New Blood and New Blood Academy student programmes, we were approached to see if we wanted to work with them on the Shift Studio program.

Participation in Shift Studio shows our commitment to supporting young people and talent in education, as well as contributing financially to a prestigious, global, not-for-profit organisation.

For HSBC as client, to be able to give new creative talent the opportunity to work on a live brief also felt like a perfect fit with our brand promise of opening up a world of opportunity.

By giving a live brief to the Shifters, HSBC would get a different perspective from a younger mind set. With a real problem to solve, it’s possible that their responses would uncover an idea or angle that could be developed further into a creative campaign.

The brief set by the HSBC Global Brand team posed a number of challenges about how HSBC should talk to customers who don’t know what role we’re playing in transitioning to net zero:

• the language used is often too technical and can easily be misunderstood
• younger audiences, who are often mindful of sustainability and environmental issues, can also be less trusting of large brands.

The 15 ‘Shifters’ were split into five teams and given four weeks to research and work on the brief. They then had to present their ideas to both the HSBC Global Brand and Marketing team and the Global Creative Director of Wunderman Thompson, Carl Lundquist.

The five responses to the brief showcased the talent of the Shift alumni, with each team providing different solutions to how HSBC can talk to our customers. Presenting to a panel can be a nerve-wracking experience, but each team pitched their well-thought-out creative ideas with professionalism and confidence. This made it very hard to pick a winner. Given the short deadline, teams produced ideas, showcased here, that demonstrated they had a good understanding of our brand and were capable of scaling up to reach a global audience.

Team 3: HSBCares

Team 3 developed the idea of a digital rewards platform that partners with ethical brands. By accumulating points through spending, you unlock rewards to use in the sustainability container shop that appears for a drop of exclusive products for a limited time. The digital dashboard acts a platform to find out more about our green initiatives; with the team applying the strapline of ‘Lead with red, build on green’ to pull the creative idea together.  

Team 4: Be less bank

This response aimed to regain the public’s trust in HSBC by being more human and transparent, and by presenting the big picture. By cutting through the corporate jargon and getting to the point, HSBC would be able to demonstrate how we're achieving our goals with clear, bite-sized facts that take an open, direct and honest approach with our customers.

In conclusion

The D&AD Shift Studio is a great way to engage with Shift alumni and to get different perspectives on briefs from young global talent. But given the limited timeframe, the responses to the brief are not fully developed campaigns, but a starting point for further creative development.

It’s also a great way of enabling young creatives to build their portfolios to help get them into the industry. Who knows, you could be working with a future creative star.

Find out more about D&AD Shift