Piraeus Bank cast a gift-demanding kid as villain to relaunch its Winbank app

Piraeus Bank redesigned Winbank, its online banking app, and had to tell existing customers about the new capabilities while winning downloads from new ones — in a market where banking advertising stays conservative because Greek mistrust of banks runs deep, peaking with the 2008 recession.

A small child stars as the antagonist of three comedy films, helping adults — even Santa — only when they hand over gifts: the app unties your hands in any situation

Newtons Laboratory ran a six-month campaign of three films built on the insight that the new app unties your hands and has you covered in any situation. In each, a man, a magician's assistant and Santa Claus face difficulties while a small child offers help in exchange for various gifts. The films ran as branded content across social.

More than 100,000 views across social while the campaign was still relatively new; the app kept its base of over four million unique customers through the migration, its store rating rose from 2.5 to 4.5, and it reached No. 1 in the App Store's Finance category.

Winbank is the online banking app of Piraeus Bank, one of Greece's biggest financial institutions. After a complete redesign aimed at a modern, user-friendly experience, the bank needed to raise awareness of the new capabilities among existing customers and increase downloads from new ones. That meant taking creative risks in a country where banks had long kept to serious, staid communication because of a long history of mistrust — the pinnacle being the 2008 recession, for which banks were in part held responsible.

With agency The Newtons Laboratory, Piraeus ran a six-month campaign of three comedy films. Each puts a protagonist — a man, a magician's assistant, Santa Claus himself — in difficulty, with a small child as the antagonist who offers help only in exchange for various gifts. The running idea: no matter the situation, the redesigned app unties your hands and has you covered.

The bank reported more than 100,000 views across social for the then-relatively-new campaign, a customer base of over four million unique clients retained through the app migration, a store rating that improved from 2.5 to 4.5, and the No. 1 spot in the App Store charts under the Finance category.

It picks the one enemy a Greek audience shares with its bank — joyless banking ads — and replaces them with sitcom logic.

A child antagonist gives the films a repeatable, ownable comedic device rather than a feature list.

The creative risk is tied to business outcomes: retention through a full app migration, ratings and chart position.

A category that has talked in austere tones for decades is open to whoever breaks the pattern gently enough — humour humanises an institution people distrust.

The January 2024 report framed the films as both branded content and an informal piece of financial education that went beyond the usual way banks inform the public about new app capabilities. No figures on new-customer downloads were given beyond the rating and chart positions.