AMERICAN EXPRESS / THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS PROJECT
29 October 2012
Credit card company launches business incubator to provide mentorship and financial support to young Israeli entrepreneurs
- Brand
- Amercian Express
- Media Type
- Event
- Product Category
- Financial Services
- Country
- Israel
- Source
- News
- Agency
- BBR Saatchi & Saatchi / Tel Aviv
- Tags
- brand as facilitator
- product launch
- credit card
- Youth
- talent
- finance
American Express has created a business incubator for young entrepreneurs as part of a promotional campaign for American Express Blue, a new credit card aimed at young professionals.
The Young Professionals project, via BBR Saatchi & Saatchi, Tel Aviv, Israel, was launched with an event organised in collaboration with Time Out magazine in Tel Aviv, where the credit card chose nine finalists from a list of 33 business talents under the age of the 33.
The final group of individuals come from fields such as fashion, music, film, restaurant management, technology and environmental preservation. American Express will reward these up-and-coming business people with perks and guidance to build their careers. This includes a $3,000 grant (given monthly as cash back on their American Express Blue card), consultation with a mentor in their field, and a meeting with American Express's media consultants.
Throughout the year-long campaign American Express will hold networking events and lectures from leading entrepreneurs for cardholders and their guests at pubs around Tel Aviv. The brand is also publishing content about the project on Israeli news and entertainment portal Mako. The Young Professionals portal hosted by Mako will host videos of American Express's events, features on making it in business, interviews with the young professionals, and information about the American Express Blue credit card.
The launch of the Young Professionals campaign is being promoted with a collaboration with Israeli electro pop band TYP (made up of producer Johnny Goldstein and singer/songwriter Ivry Lider). The band created a music video that shows them crashing a boardroom meeting and ends with a link inviting people to find out more about the project. In two weeks. The video has been viewed more than 75,000 times on YouTube
Contagious Insight /
Earlier this year we reported on how brands were incubating and funding startups in our Brands as VCs trend. Here, American Express has decided to launch a similar programme, but is assisting individuals, not start-ups. Overall, this is a clever idea that proves to young professionals that American Express not only understands them but it investing in helping them and their peers.
More than a short-lived campaign, this is a year-long project, which if successful, has the potential to be run more permanently.
The brand has also taken care with its collaborators. The band TYP was nominated by music fans as the Best Israeli Act during the MTV Europe Music Awards 2012, while TimeOut and Mako are both wise media partnerships, seeing as they target a similar demographic.
American Express seems to have purposely chosen young professionals with glamourous careers in industries like film and music, but given the territory, we're not sure this was the best strategy. Israel is brimming with startups (the country has more scientists, engineers, and startups, per capita, than anywhere else on earth), so the brand might have struck more of a chord if it reflected this fact. That said, we love the idea of the brand offering support to people (besides the contest winners) with its advice, features and events.
This story originally appeared on Contagious Feed. Contagious Feed is our bespoke trends, inspiration, insight and analysis service, providing daily innovative marketing intelligence across a comprehensive range of sectors to brands and agencies across the world. For more information about Contagious Feed contact sales@contagiousmagazine.com
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