The Giving Tree

UniCredit Bank continues a decade old tradition and supports the largest cultural event in Romania – The Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS) – a major celebration of arts: 540 events and lots of sponsors, including 5 other banks. How could UniCredit brand activation stand out?

We built it from our brand positioning – the bank for the things that matter – and prioritized the things that matter most to our audience: doing shared activities with their loved ones & self-expression (Cult Market Research, 2018).

We used this year’s festival theme -The Art of Giving – and designed our brand presence & interaction as a democratization of the artistic act understood as self-expression and as an act of giving to others. We switched the paradigm and gave thousands of spectators a shot at becoming artists, a chance to express their feelings& kind thoughts – the things that matter most for them.

Objectives:

• Brand visibility & enforcing our positioning – reaching at least 1 mil Romanians with our communication campaign
• Engage with 500 persons/day
• Enrich the FITS experience for the audience
• Double the FITS program app downloads compared to 2018

This is how the The Giving Tree came to life – a live, interactive art performance in the Big Square in Sibiu, the hot spot of the city. We spread the word through our communication campaign and we challenged spectators to nourish the growth of the tree by exercising the art of giving, to share their thoughts about the things that matter most to them in the FITS app we had updated for them. For three nights in a row, their feelings, hopes & dreams became a real-time interactive projection, an oasis of positivity, a cultural happening enjoyed by thousands of eyes. It was the first time in the festival history when spectators became creators, when the artistic act was not consistent with the vision of a writer or director, but a direct expression of the people.

Our communication campaign reached approximately 2 million people, equivalent of 1/10 of the country.

+3.300 people entrusted The Giving Tree the things that matter most to them: appreciation for the festival, their love for Sibiu, love declarations & marriage proposals. UniCredit Bank gave back more art by making a 5.000 EUR donation to keep a unique cultural event alive: the only theatre play in Romania taking place in a tram (the Rasinari project).

+5,000 app downloads – 4.6X compared to 2018 (230%)

+30.000 spectators enjoyed the show

Recognized as the best brand activation in the festival by the Festival Director. And the pride of having developed a brand activation that turned into a stand-alone performance.