The National Bank of Greece (NBG) wanted to launch Next, a banking app for young people. But there was a problem: the market was crowded with established players and emerging neobanks all chasing the same audience. And while young Greeks trusted NBG as an institution, they saw it as their parents’ bank - stable, but not for them.

So how do you make a legacy bank feel relevant to young people?

We started with a truth: 91% of young people say stress is part of their daily life, with finances being one of the top three culprits. Financial anxiety doesn’t just affect their wallets - it holds them back from living the life they want.

Our strategy was to position Next as the app for stress-free banking. Not by ignoring money stress, but by showing that Next makes managing finances so simple and intuitive that the anxiety melts away.

To bring this to life, we borrowed from the content young people already use to de-stress. 83% of this demographic actively seeks out relaxing content online, so we gave them exactly that. The campaign featured ultra-relaxed characters in absurdly calm settings: a guy lounging on a giant marshmallow, someone floating peacefully in a pool, paired with a soothing ASMR-style voiceover explaining Next’s features. For the first time, money management wasn’t treated as inherently stressful. It was unexpected, culturally relevant, and shifted the conversation from money fears to money fantasies.

By speaking their language and aligning the brand with youth culture, we helped young people see NBG differently: not as a static institution, but as a partner that understands their pressures and makes banking feel light, simple, and stress-free. The results surpassed expectations: 60,000 downloads in just the first three months, against an initial target of 80,000 in the first year.