2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Despite social progress in Canada in the past decades, there are still many areas where women haven’t achieved equality with men. Money is one of the greatest among them, especially when it comes
to investment.

With fewer than 20% of Canadian women independently managing their finances, the long-term consequences on their future security are significant. Not only do women invest less frequently, but those who do also regret not having started sooner, indicating a lack of both awareness and accessible resources.

National Bank stood apart as one of the few institutions consistently championing women’s financial empowerment. However, despite its longstanding commitment, the topic of female investing remained underrepresented in public discourse and marketing initiatives across the industry.

To act on that issue, they set themselves two main objectives. First, to raise awareness among women about the importance of investing by reaching 3 million Canadian women aged 25–54, increasing female-driven traffic to National Bank’s investment pages by 10% and increasing National Bank’s perceived commitment to gender equality by 50%. The second objective was to empower women to take control of their investments by generating over 5 million engagements and increasing the number of investment accounts opened by women at National Bank by 15%.

While cultural narratives contribute to building financial confidence, stereotypes about money spread by women’s media fuel the investing gap. Although money itself has no gender, the cultural narrative around finance often does — particularly within women’s media. Studies indicate that 90% of financial articles aimed at female audiences focus on saving and frugality, while men’s publications frame investing as a route to accomplishment. This discrepancy widens the gender investing gap by undermining women’s confidence to take bolder financial steps.

They launched “The Investment Issue” on International Women’s Day 2024, running through March and April and centred on two pillars: uniting women’s media and providing actionable financial tools.

They united women’s media by building on their insight that media narratives can either undermine or embolden women’s confidence. The agency set out to create a movement that tackled the root cause: how women’s finance is portrayed in the media.

Rather than simply telling women to invest, they formed an editorial coalition of nine of Canada’s leading women’s magazines — that were normally competitors — to embed financial literacy into everyday content.

To literally flip the script, they redesigned each magazine’s back cover to promote female investment and highlight inspiring stories, published co-created articles, and directed readers to National Bank’s “Women’s Finances” page, which houses 300+ financial literacy resources.

They amplified the movement through a co-branded content strategy featuring collaborations with magazines and influencers to spread the initiative both online and in the public sphere. This was supported by a video explaining the initiative.

National Bank’s ecosystem was also leveraged, with magazines distributed at hundreds of branches across the country.

Beyond reshaping the narrative, they provided financial tools by offering concrete steps for women to start investing. They introduced the “Invest in You” challenge, a video series led by notable female investors Jessica Moorhouse and Kathy Marquis. The series offered practical, step-by-step investment advice and was amplified through an OOH campaign, radio integrations, influencer partnerships, online content on social platforms, and displays to increase the discoverability of the series.

To ensure long-term engagement, they also provided digital investment toolkits through bank advisors and physical branches nationwide, equipping women with practical resources well after the campaign period.

Strategic planning was the cornerstone of the initiative, from ideation to execution, by turning a problem into a solution to tackle the gender investing gap. Rather than simply pointing out the issue of stereotyped narratives around money in women’s media, the key strategic build was recognizing it as an opportunity to rally an entire industry and its allies around the empowerment of Canadian women investors.

By designing a deployment strategy that embeds financial literacy into women’s daily content, and motivated by the desire to move beyond passive awareness and drive real action, strategic planning played a pivotal role in building a comprehensive 360-degree ecosystem. The goal was to deliver relevant financial literacy content, seamlessly woven into the media habits of Canadian women.

The campaign delivered powerful results across both awareness and empowerment. On the awareness front, an inequality issue was finally recognized by Canadian women, with nearly 4 out of 5 women aged 25-54 reached, totaling over 6 million, which doubled the original objective.

Female-driven traffic to National Bank’s investment pages grew by 21%, exceeding the objective by 110%. While the bank’s perceived commitment to gender equality rose by 130%, jumping from 32% to 74%, a 160% lift over the goal.

On the empowerment side, women are now more equipped than ever to take control of their investments. The financial literacy content generated over 9 million engagements, surpassing the target by 80%, and investment accounts opened by women at National Bank increased by 31%, more than doubling the objective at 106%.

But the masterstroke they are most proud of is uniting nine women’s magazines around their initiative and securing their lasting commitment to permanently change their narratives around money.

Credits

CREATIVE AGENCY: LG2
CLIENT: National Bank of Canada
PRODUCTION COMPANY: ROMEO
MEDIA AGENCY: Omnicom Media Group Montréal & Adviso
SOUND STUDIO : Studio Octave - Ronny Martinez

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTION: Marilou Aubin
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Martin Beauséjour
COPYWRITING (FR): Roxanne Pelletier, Catherine Foisy
COPYWRITING (EN): Roxanne Pelletier, Julia Lemyre-Cossette, Charlotte Perreault
ART DIRECTION: Hang Tan Tang, Vincent Pérès, Jean Landry
STRATEGY: Arthur Rollet
STRATEGY: Pierre Labadie
ACCOUNT SERVICES: Stéphanie Martin, Stéphanie Paquette, Sophie Dupont, Geneviève Grondin, Caroline Germain
LAYOUT ARTIST: Blanca Rosa Arellano Sarabi
AGENCY PRODUCTION: Andréanne Hébert
GRAPHIC PRODUCTION: Julie Martin, Geneviève Demers
MAC ARTIST: Martin Brisebois
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICERS: Josh Stein, Nicolas Baldovini, Luc Du Sault
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER: Sophie-Annick Vallée
VICE-PRESIDENT, STRATEGY: Stefanie Forcier
VICE-PRESIDENT, ACCOUNT SERVICES: Karine Payette
VICE-PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTION: Nicolas Boisvert