Citibank set out to link their brand to entertainment by partnering with high-profile events across the country, from the LA Food Bowl to Chicago’s Lollaplooza to the NY Comedy Festival. We worked with them to build awareness and generate excitement around these efforts. Here is one example.
Citibank + GCF
goals
Generate awareness of Citi + Global Citizen Festival partnership; drive brand favorability.
CAMPAIGN
For the last 7 years, Citi has had a presence at Global Citizen Festival (GCF), an event in Central Park that brings together top music with world leaders to make commitments toward healthcare, gender equality, education, eliminating poverty, and other social issues. Guests earn their tickets by taking a series of actions to effect change around the world. Working with several producers and two digital influencers, we amplified Citi’s presence onsite, humanizing the financial services brand and drawing attention to the partnership.
Audience
Progress Makers - young, ambitious, optimists, who are passionate about new experiences. They actively seek new experiences and are tapped into the latest cultural trends. They value socially responsible brands and believe in the power of individuals working together to change the world.
MY Role
Mapping data we had collected over previous Citi campaigns and information about our target audience, I advised the creative team, shaping the format and content of our messaging. This included creating an overarching conceptual narrative that fit the message, festival, and demographic.
In keeping with a festival built on individual actions, this “Model Citizen” framework envisioned content celebrating festival attendees. I identified and vetted influencers, acted as a liaison with teams onsite to capture and edit, and worked lockstep with our paid media agency to promote all content.
RESULTS
Our content exceeded benchmarks receiving 33 million impressions and 12 million video views. For context, New York City has a population of 8.6 million. The impact of our content was confirmed through platform brand studies, where we saw significant lifts in ad recall (+8pts) and brand favorability (as much as +16pts).
Our influencer posts exceeded benchmarks as well, with an engagement rate of 28.10% (exceeding the influencers’ average ER for branded content). Following this campaign’s success in the second year, Citi committed to an enhanced/global 3-year partnership with GCF built around shared efforts in Sustainable Finance & Innovation.