1. IT ALL STARTED WITH A MANIFESTO.

Charting a new spirit of humility, engagement - and readiness to change. This manifesto would sit prominently in every Citi branch.

2. PRACTICAL HELP FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES.

“Citi Lunch and Learn”. Instead of buying sports stadiums, now we'd repurpose existing real estate to benefit struggling communities in practical ways.

3. INNOVATIVE WAYS TO KICKSTART NEW BUSINESSES.

“Citi Change Centers”. Shopping malls were emptying across America as recession bit. So let's fix that. By creating pop-up business startup centers in empty shops. The spaces would then be left to successful new businesses.

4. NEW PROGRAMS TO IDENTIFY THE BEST NEW THINKING AND TOMORROW’S THOUGHT LEADERS.

“The Citi Arc Awards”. Citi needed to regain its reputation as a thought leader. So we proposed a major new online awards program. A forum where innovative thinking across its 100+ nation network could be shared.  Breakthrough ideas highlighted and awarded. And the next generation of thought-leaders could be rapidly identified. The Citi Arc Awards was keenly adopted - and became Landor’s largest global digital project to that time.

5. NEW REWARDS FOR OUTSIDER THINKING.

“Imagine Citi” challenged accepted ways of doing things. Harnessing and rewarding ideas from outsiders and new employees to drive change.

6. NEW DIGITAL TOOLS TO BUILD TRANSPARENCY AND TRUST.

"Where Citi’s Helping Now" would be a range of app-based, online and in-store digital products. Designed to raise awareness of precisely where Citi was spending government TARP loans. You could see in real time, help arriving In your community. In the places – and on the things – that matter to you. Building community confidence and reducing mistrust.

7. TAILORING THE CITI VOICE TO EACH INDIVIDUAL.

“Citi Speaks your Language”

Phone banking already targets products to customers based on a variety of data points. But what if you could go further and create different categories of messaging and voicing for each customer interaction, based on circumstances and history? Using technology to enable us to provide a Citi experience more in tune with the understandings, experiences and presumptions of key demographics? So each phone and cashpoint interaction lowered the traditional barrier between a bank and its customers.

8. A LOCAL MICROFINANCE CREDIT CARD.

“Citi Triangle Funds”. Citi has worked in microfinance in developing nations. We suggested they bring that expertise back home. To signal their commitment to the community.

We conceived a product where banking consumers could invest in micro-financing initiatives in agriculture, their local communities, or even their family’s education and health care. Taking its symbol from the Delta, the mathematical and scientific sign for change, we called it the Citi Triangle Program.

Citi Renewed was one of those big, multilayered projects of real size and scale. Made more complicated -and more exciting- by the fact we were dealing with a political hot potato - at a time of major crisis. Not every idea made it through to the real world. But many did. Including the the launch of the global Citi Arc Awards program, while the core Citi Manifesto idea became the “Promises” campaign, seen here running across New York City.

Want to find out more? Here’s a 90 second overview from a brand perspective – narrated by Mark Kingsley, Global Creative Director, designer extraordinaire and my creative partner on this project.