HSBC on the ‘double punch’ of dialling up distinctive assets
For director of brand marketing, Sarah Mayall, the bank’s decision to hero its red hexagon logo is the “big win” of her time in role.
There are times when it pays off for a brand to stand out. That’s the view of HSBC director of brand marketing, Sarah Mayall, who was once taken out of a meeting when the business was trending on BBC News because it was deemed a bank that “had done something radical”.
That something radical was the launch in 2019 of the ‘We Are Not An Island’ campaign. The outdoor creative featured a heavy black script on a white background and a prominent red hexagon – the bank’s logo.
Speaking yesterday at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing (3 October), Mayall recalled when she joined in 2018 the bank had a TV ad out which wasn’t landing on other channels. The team started looking at HSBC’s distinctive assets and decided to bring the hexagon “to life”, while also focusing on manifesto style text – a move which felt “quite radical”.
