Western Union launches global 'yes!' campaign

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
Western Union has launched a new global brand campaign, the 'yes!' initiative, which has been rolled out in over 200 countries, where the money transfer giant operates in. The creativity behind the campaign centres on the hope inherent in the word 'yes!', highlighting the tangible acts that bring the brand to life.

The TVC features yellow, bubble-like alphabets 'y', 'e' and 's', floating around cities and towns, passing through the everyday lives of people in a marketplace, kids' football match, a coffee shop, in streets and by lanes.

People touch and probe these floating letters that eventually come together to form a large 'Yes'. The voiceover says that millions of people the world over are moving ahead everyday, realising and building their dreams and saying 'Yes' to a bright future.

Artists who worked on the campaign include film director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, photojournalist Steve McCurry and typographer, David Carson. The TVC features music by Moroccan musician Hindi Zahra.

Publicis Hong Kong, Western Union's global agency of record, worked on creating the commercial along with these artists, while Profero handled the digital marketing.

The campaign, which has been already launched in 60 countries already, sees minor modifications to suite the palate of various geographical footprints. Print and outdoor are more localised, being done in each location itself with each country trying to outdo the other.

Speaking to Televisionpoint.com, Rajesh Mehta, marketing director, Western Union - South and Southeast Asia, says, "We are enthusiastic about launching the yes! campaign in India and globally. The world is flat today and we aimed at a campaign, which unifies our offering across the entire globe, cutting across the geography, ethnicity and culture."

McCann Erickson partnered with Western Union to customise the global campaign for India in Indian languages to bring the local flavour to it. The campaign has been launched in 10 languages in India, including Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Punjabi and Telugu.

In India, photographer Amit Pandirkar conducted the pan-India photo shoot with Indian faces to go on to all the outdoors and print ads. Music director Jolly worked on the 45-seconder radio spot. TLG India, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group, was the media agency of record, while Navia Asia was the outdoor partner.

For the record, the Western Union Company is a leader in the money transfer segment of global payments, together with its Orlandi Valuta and Vigo branded money transfer services. Famous for its pioneering telegraph services, the original Western Union dates back to 1851.