2024 Best of Europe: Sustained Success

From Members to Monsters

Summary: Between 2011 and 2019 Ireland lost 165 Credit Unions. To survive, the movement desperately needed to grow their loan book. But because of the Credit Union’s ‘savings and small loans’ heritage, people were defaulting to the bigger banks for larger loans. To unlock the larger loans market for the Credit Union, we created a cast of ‘Credit Union monsters’ to demonstrate that anyone can apply for our monster sized loans.

Monster Loans drove €1.3billion incremental enquiries and increased our market share from 32% to 40%.

Lead Agency(s): Core

Client / Brand: Irish League of Credit Unions


Big Enough to Make a Difference  

Summary: At a time where customers saw big as bad, how could McDonald’s leverage the one thing it couldn’t change into being an agent of change? With its platform “Big enough to make a difference,” McDonald’s reached into almost every household, shifting customer perception by communicating size matters when it comes to sustainability, social initiatives, environmental efforts and more. The result was a change in how people saw the brand, growing brand trust and increase visits, leading to sustained growth and record-breaking sales.

McDonald’s Sweden showed its size makes good easy to create a better ‘aftertaste’ for brand.

Lead Agency(s): NORD DDB

Client / Brand: McDonalds


Sardinian Soul  

Summary: When your brand’s most powerful asset is its authenticity, how do you communicate it without looking like a sell-out? This is the story of how they launched Ichnusa – a small, Sardinian beer – and turned it into one of the Italy’s favourite brands. How they made tiny Ichnusa into the most meaningful brand in the country and the third largest beer brand by market share – achieving an ROI of €9.16/1€ spent. Most importantly, how they made Sardinians proud of their beer. This is how they bottled authenticity.

Ichnusa became Italy’s most meaningful brand and the third biggest beer in Italy (from ninth).

Lead Agency(s): LePub

Client / Brand: Ichnusa