The Magic Pencil Project
"An art competition isn't exciting. A pencil that brings drawings to life is."
How does a bank get an entire country to take part in an art competition it has never heard of?
ICICI Bank wanted to turn Creative Masters, one of its customer initiatives, into a nation-wide art competition. The problem was simple: art competitions, by themselves, are not exciting.
An art competition isn't exciting. But a pencil that brings anything you draw to life is. Give people a reason to pick up a pencil that has nothing to do with a bank, and the bank stops having to ask.
Invent The Magic Pencil Project — a fictional start-up on a mission to build a pencil that brings drawings to life. Let the country fall for the pencil first, and discover ICICI's Creative Masters through it.
A dedicated brand, team and social presence for the fictional lab, staffed by young creators with titles like Chief Dreamer and Dream Weaver. Daily posts and videos tracked the pencil's 'progress'. On-ground activations asked people a simple question — what would you draw if your pencil could bring anything to life? — and funnelled them into Creative Masters.
A social-first campaign that drove mass participation into Creative Masters, and turned a routine customer initiative into a national conversation about imagination.