The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a policy for banks’ recapitalisation for them to meet the global 
competitiveness, better serve their customers and grow the Nigerian economy. Many leading banks rushed to the capital market to raise funds and beat the deadline set by the CBN.
FirstBank of Nigeria Plc, Nigeria’s oldest and one of the most capitalised banks briefed Touchstone to develop “cyclonic and earth-shaking” campaign that would generate unparalleled word-of-mouth for its public offer and drown competitions’ voice. Most of the competitors were already in the capital market to raise fund. The bank wanted the offer to be introduced in a way never done before in the history of public offer in Nigeria.
Touchstone ran a through-the-line campaign from conceptualisation of the big idea to creative development execution and deployment across all media like press, TV, radio, internet, Out-of-Home (OOH). Also, the team handled the media planning/buying, corporate event planning, road shows and PR for the campaign. As part of the strategy to win the market and make the offer subscription successful, a live elephant was paraded on the street of Lagos to dramatise the size of the offer and the bank’s capacity to give a good return on investment.
A combination of the bank’s pedigree, the African elephant and the biggest offer on the Nigerian Stock Exchange informed our big idea, “the Big One”. This became the most ambitious offer strategy ever in the history of offer campaigns in Nigeria. No other campaign has been able to match the impact it generated. The offer was hugely oversubscribed making FirstBank of Nigeria Plc the most capitalised bank in Nigeria and raising close to 500 billion NGN (4 billion USD) for the offer an increase of about 400% from 100 billion NGN (800 million USD) that the bank planned to raise.