How we helped a nation reimagine their bank by handing over control
Bank of Scotland needs little introduction. Founded in 1695, it’s Scotland’s original and biggest bank – serving over half the nation every day.
Appointed in 2025 as the brand’s campaign agency, we were tasked with re-launching the transformed Bank of Scotland brand in the marketplace.
The Challenge
Bank of Scotland is a powerhouse. With over 2 million customers they dominate the Scottish banking category, across consumers and business.
However, a leader never rests on its laurels. With Bank of Scotland being a trusted, well-established brand, many viewed it as being a little too traditional and safe. Following a strategy and visual identity refresh, it was then our role to show the people and businesses of Scotland what the bank stands for today – modern, relevant and rooted in Scottish culture.
Insight & Strategy
Relaunching the Bank of Scotland, in Scotland, must start with dialling up Scottishness, right?
Through deep audience analysis and creative testing we found that the real issue wasn’t around national identity. Scotland doesn’t want a Scottish bank. It wants a world-class bank that just happens to be Scottish.
Instead, we found the real opportunity lay in unrealised ambitions – the things Scottish people are building, starting, saving for or hoping to make happen. Today, 96% of people in Scotland have aspirations, but 78% struggle to do anything about it.
There’s no shortage of aspiration in Scotland. What’s missing is the confidence to go for it.
Our campaign had to reposition the bank as a modern, digital leader, empowering Scotland to go and achieve its aspirations.
The Idea
Following this thinking, the bank identified a new brand platform: ‘Go On’. A rallying cry to aspiration and action. Our campaign had to bring this to life.
For our team, a powerful territory lay in the tension between realness & action.
To trigger reappraisal and grow relevance, we could do something the bank had never done in its 330 years – hand control over to real people and let them share their stories. Not just of aspiration, but of action.
Built on the belief that ambition belongs to anyone bold enough to act on it, this idea puts the customer at the absolute centre; their ambitions, their moves, their version of success. Bank of Scotland is the backing, the push, the quiet confidence that says, we’ve got you, now go.
Progress doesn’t wait. And neither should you.
Go do your thing was born.
The Creative
At the heart of the creative, we put over 100 real Scots in front of the camera for the bank’s first-ever user-generated brand campaign.
This featured authentic customer stories of aspiration and brought them to the fore. Scots with ambition bigger than themselves, in motion, making it happen. From first steps to next steps. Always raw and real, not polished or perfect. Unmistakably a portrait of Scotland.
From Tunnock’s, EGG, Finnieston’s Corner Shop and Shrimp Wreck it also told the story of real businesses, each with their own ambitions the bank could help bring to life.
To sum up this new attitude and energy, we chose a soundtrack to match it. A track from Edinburgh-born, critically acclaimed and up-and-coming producer Barry Can’t Swim. Another showcase for the ambition and confidence of Scotland’s next generation.
At the heart of the work was mobile – not just in where it appeared, but how it was shot. Everything was framed in a 9:16 hand-held style, emphasising the mobile-first lives our customers now lead.
Key to the creative was telling stories that were both big and small. Bank of Scotland already had strength in the ‘big’ banking moments, but we also needed to remind the country that the bank’s services and products are also there for the all-important everyday banking moments too.
These real stories were brought to life in film and executed across broadcast, VOD and social. Statics of our aspiring customers appeared across the nation in prized outdoor placements. All of this was supported by the biggest digital ad drive from the brand in years.
A fully integrated and inspiring national campaign – for a national icon.
Bank of Scotland has been powering the nation for over 330 years, but to change brand perception we knew this campaign needed to try something new.
On that journey, we’ve loved working with the team at MadeBrave. Always creative and unexpected, but also strategic and rigorously evidenced. Above all though, they challenged us. To let our customers talk. To be more real and authentic.
And, with collaboration from brand strategy specialists and UGC agencies, it’s led to a brilliant campaign, already delivering results.
