RMB’s ‘A Story of Courage’ campaign rakes in eight awards

Congratulations to our partners and friends at Rand Merchant Bank for winning eight awards for the rowing campaign, “A Story of Courage.”

The campaign revolved around a stunning documentary, eponymously titled “A Story of Courage”, that gets right to the heart of the depth of talent in South African rowing. The documentary showcases the South African spirit, resilience and courage to overcome challenges and punch above our weight.

It was originally intended as a story about the RMB National Squad’s journey to the Tokyo Olympics. However, just days before the RMB National Squad was due at the final Olympic qualifiers, the world started locking down and the Olympics were postponed.

We happened to be in Lesotho at the RMB National Squad’s high-altitude training camp filming the final touches to the documentary with Fell&Co and Promise Group when we got the heartbreaking the news about the Olympics being postponed.

It was an emotional morning as Roger Barrow, the head coach, broke the news to the team and gave them an option to head home or keep training. It was this moment that led to us changing the storyline of the RMB rowing documentary.

The team demonstrated the “Courage” that sets them apart from the rest of the world.

As Roger finished sharing the news, Lawrence Brittain, a senior rower and past Olympian, said: “Let’s row! The goal has not changed, just the plan.”

As the day rolled on, we witnessed the team turn the challenge into an opportunity, realising that they could use this time to get stronger and faster.

RMB decided to dedicate the documentary to all South Africans as we are all forced to show courage in the face of Covid 19.

The documentary took just less than a year to make and was a huge collective effort from Rand Merchant Bank, CN&CO, Fell&Co and Promise Group.

A Story of Courage received the following awards:

Loeries

• A bronze for digital design – Story of Courage microsite

Hollard Sports Awards

• Communications Award of the Year – A Story of Courage campaign
• Best Audio-Visual Content – A Story of Courage documentary

Assegai Awards

• Leader Awards – Online banners, microsite, online campaign
• Bronze – Website
• Bronze – Integrated Direct Marketing Campaign
• Silver – Branded content
• Silver – Best use of content

Congratulations to all involved!

You can watch A Story of Courage here.