2023 Winner

GoldBest in Niche Targeting

CIBC
"Send All The Love"
Courage
Every year, over 400,000 people come to Canada in search of a better life. Not only for themselves, but for their families back home. Just last year, Canadians sent over $7 billion dollars overseas. But when it comes to sending money to loved ones abroad, CIBC Global Money Transfer isn’t among the top services of choice.

That’s because immigrants and new Canadians opt for well-known international companies like Western Union or low-fee challenger brands like Remitly because they believe that big banks charge too much in fees. And they aren’t wrong – CIBC is the only “Big 5” bank to charge $0 transfer fees on all global money transfers.

Their task was to highlight their $0 transfer fee as their point of differentiation.

But there’s a problem: despite making up a quarter of Canada’s population, new Canadians don’t feel seen in the ads targeted to them. A recent Facebook study shows that 54% of ethnic minorities don’t feel culturally represented in advertising.

They needed to go beyond functional RTBs and find a real way to depict their lives to authentically capture what $0 transfer fee can do for their families back home. Especially because for people new to Canada, sending money to their loved ones abroad is far more than financial help. It’s a month's worth of groceries, piano lessons, family dinners, medicine supplies, and much more. It’s a proud way to show gratitude and care for their loved ones back home. Their strategy was to authentically demonstrate to them how far their money can go without a $0 dollar fee by turning a functional benefit into an emotional call to action.

To launch their “Send all the love” campaign they focused on media channels that allowed us to tell an emotional story. They leveraged long form 60 second films on OLV, TV, and connected TV. Shot around the world, they campaign centered on two powerful pieces of film that show immigrants to Canada and new Canadians how far their money can go with $0 transfer fees. Their stories centered on giving two Canadians their money transfer fees back so they can see how CIBC helps them send more love to their families back home.

From Manila to Mumbai, the films take us through the vibrant locales of each city as they capture the moments and memories made possible with $0 transfer fees. They see a nephew playing with a new basketball, a karaoke night out, a surprise birthday party, a beachside feast, a new big screen TV, and much more. Their documentary film crew followed the families for two weeks to genuinely document what the money does for them.

To make this campaign powerful they knew they needed to go niche. They believed hyper targeted media executions that spoke to different pockets of diverse Canadians in their language, neighborhoods, and communities were going to create authenticity and resonance with new Canadians. So they created an ethno-centric media strategy to target the biggest money transfer corridors in Canada broadcasting their spot on channels with higher multi-cultural viewership like Willow TV (India), GMA (Philippines), and FEVA (Jamaica) to name a few. On radio, they adapted their spot in several different languages and aired them on stations with high cultural listenership, including 98.7FM, 96.1FM, and 89.9FM.

They then retargeted them across DOOH, social media and digital by translating “Send the love” over a hundred different ways – showing newcomers that no matter where they’re from,
CIBC speaks their language.

They also created an OOH strategy that took into consideration the demographics of various neighborhoods to serve advertising in their language (for example - in Brampton they focused on OOH in Hindi). Ultimately their media approach aimed to make new Canadians feel seen using their own language, truths, and unique media channels.

The campaign delivered some of the best results among immigrants to Canada and new Canadians ever seen by any major Financial institution in Canada. By simply reflecting the truth of what it means for them to send money home, CIBC made their nation’s fastest growing demographic feel seen contributing a staggering 38% increase in positive brand sentiment among immigrants to
Canada and new Canadians.

This was also reflected in their business results. Within the first few weeks CIBC global money transfer saw a significant 11% increase in transaction volume while the daily users of the product went up by 8%. Finally, they had the best media performance in the history of CIBC GMT. They reached more Canadians than last year with only one third of their media spend, and decreased CPM cost from $8 to less than $6.5, and brought down the cost per acquisition to less than $2 per new customer.

Credits

Courage Inc.
CCO + Founder: Dhaval Bhatt
CCO + Founder: Joel Holtby
CSO + Partner: Tom Kenny
President + Partner: Niki Sahni
Creative Director: Dominique Raso
Creative Director: Cindy Marie Navarro
ACD: Hemal Dhanjee
ACD: Steve Ierullo
Copywriter: Zac Smith
Art Director: Zeina Elshurafa
GAD: Saloni Wadehra
Account Director: Kat Ledgett
Account Executive: Darita Odobo
Account Coordinator: Sunaina Arora
EP: Clair Galea
Producer: Katie Fowler
Group Strategy Director: Rami Dudin

Oliver
President: Jay Owen
Account Director: Amanda Agostini
Account Executive: Una Li
Business Director: Christine Benchemam

CIBC
Chief Marketing Officer: Tammy Sadinsky
VP, Business Partner Marketing: Angela Sarino
Senior Director, Business Partner Marketing: James Featherstone
Senior Manager, Customer Marketing: Melissa Clark
Manager, Customer Marketing: Jacqueline Hood

Spy Films
Director: Omri Cohen
EP: Marcus Trulli
DOP: Brandon Kelly
Producer: Adrian Cheung
Production Coordinator: Leah Munro

Toronto
Production Designer: Tatjana Green
Locations Manager: Anthony Guerriero
Production Manager: Trevor Evoy

Mumbai: Fingerprint Films
EP: Madhukar Kotian
Producer: Shiibu Tholat

Manila: Hot & Fresh
EP: Chris Esguerra
Producer - Nomer Mercado

Jigsaw Casting
Casting Director: Shasta Lutz
Casting Associate: Kaitlin Lane
Real People Casting Associate: Sylvia Lee

Nimiopere
Editor: Nick Yumul
Assistant Editor: Shalini Menon
EP: Julie Axell

Alter Ego
Colourist: Wade Odlum, Lily Henry
Colour Assistant: Daniel Saavedra
VFX Artist: Joel Osis
Motion Designer: Ian Flaig
VFX Assistant: Saba Zahir
Producer: Mariya Guzova
EP: Hilda Pereira

Vapor Music
Creative Director: Ted Rosnick
Original Music + SFX: Vapor Music
Senior Engineer: Julian Rudd
EP: Lindsey Bates

EssenceMediaCom
Account Director: Nicole LeClair
Account Manager: Jodee Cave
Assistant Account Executive: Nikita Chandra
Account Director: Lisa Wong
Account Executive: Sarah Yang
Assistant Account Executive: Jennifer Shen