Challenged to find a way of making Barclays’ massive investment of time and energy creating new solutions for its customers’ needs a compelling editorial story, we’ve been again the media this week.
The Barclays Age Suit is a remarkable tool that has been used by staff to help them get a real sense of the banking experience for the elderly.
Complete with weights, joint stiffening, hearing impairment and a variety of sight loss inducing specs, the suit ages the wearer from 30 to 80 in about 20 minutes.
A swift sprinkle of research later – asking older people whether they feel too much is designed around the needs of the young – to give the story a news hook, we were off.
First up, CNN spent the day in the Barclays Age Suit and were followed swiftly by METRO and ITN. The research story and pics ran in the Daily Telegraph, Mail Online, Daily Express, HuffPo and The Times, while James Day came through with a full-page belter. Some of the trend sites – PSFK and Trendhunter – also picked up the story. The story even made an appearance on the Sky News paper review and tempted Lee Price into the suit for The Sun.
And next up we’re working with the Beeb to do a bigger piece in the next week or so.
All-in-all a cute little campaign based on something Barclays was already doing – but perhaps being a little too humble about. Lovely stuff altogether.
