Cannes Lions

#ExpressLove

OGILVY NEW YORK, New York / AMERICAN EXPRESS / 2017

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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

#ExpressLove launched on the 1-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that finally legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S.

We took the quintessential brand truth, that every Member’s anniversary—a “Member Since” date—is printed on their American Express card, and reimagined it as a way to celebrate this historic anniversary. All work featured real LGBT Cardmembers “Married Since 2015.” The classic blue logo was redesigned using rainbow colors, and introduced across all American Express social channels and americanexpress.com, with posts celebrating LGBT spouses.

#ExpressLove showed up big time with a float that appeared at 10 U.S. Gay Pride festivals.

Finally, to encourage people everywhere to express love, we launched an activation that enabled people to create photos in the style of our social posts – celebrating all types of relationships. We promoted the activation at Pride festivals where #ExpressLove appeared.

This multi-pronged campaign was a big, bold statement from American Express.

Execution

#ExpressLove launched in conjunction with New York City Pride and the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. The print, social posts, new logo, updated homepage, digital activation site and Pride Parade appearance all started on June 26, 2016.

Throughout the summer, #ExpressLove continued to make appearances at Pride festivals around the U.S., with geo-targeted social posts promoting the activation microsite at these events.

Outcome

The positive response in social media was overwhelming. #ExpressLove made 5.9 million social impressions on an audience that had near zero awareness of the brand's pro-LGBT stance.

#ExpressLove was seen by over 3 million people who attended Gay Pride events in 10 U.S. cities.

American Express made 228 million impressions from mentions in 65 outlets including mainstream media (NBC News, The New York Times, People) and LGBT media (Out.com, Pride Life, Logo).

#ExpressLove was named one of the top 6 LGBT campaigns of the year by the MDB blog.

And, by advertising in the New York Times, and sharing with millions of Facebook fans and Members who visit americanexpress.com, we were able to push our message of love and inclusivity beyond the LGBT community. Our online activation drew in a wide range of participants expressing love. Friends, partners and spouses, both LGBT and non-LGBT, shared #ExpressLove posts.

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