Creating Opportunities to Rise
The Brief
Inspire customer service agents to go above and beyond
Barclays needed to communicate their new purpose to every new joiner, ensuring they left induction events feeling inspired to make a difference. The goal was simple: let real customer stories do the talking, rather than having the bank congratulate itself.
The Solution
Let customers tell the story the bank can't
A suite of cinematic films with a strong emotional hook, built around real customer stories. No corporate narration. No self-promotion. Just powerful, authentic accounts of how the everyday decisions of Barclays colleagues changed lives — told by the people who experienced it.
Background
Half of UK adults are Barclays customers. The purpose had to match the scale.
Barclays occupies a rare position — almost part of the fabric of the UK. To safeguard that, they adopted a strategy of technological innovation and deeper customer relationships, underpinned by a new purpose: Creating Opportunities to Rise.
The idea is straightforward: look after your customers, help them rise to meet their own challenges, and the results will follow. But communicating purpose is easy. Making people feel it is the hard part.
Previous induction content had struggled to land with authenticity — exit feedback consistently showed that new joiners understood the purpose intellectually but didn’t feel it emotionally. Barclays needed content that didn’t just explain Creating Opportunities to Rise but embodied it — something that would leave new joiners genuinely moved, not merely informed.
COTR Stories - Swim Club
Our Approach
Find the stories that make the purpose real
We sought out real customer stories that demonstrated exceptional service — moments where the everyday decisions of Barclays colleagues had a measurable impact on people's lives and communities.
The films were crafted as powerful standalone narratives, each shining a light on colleagues around the UK. The approach was deliberately emotional: connect through storytelling first, then let the purpose framework give that emotion a name.
The result was content designed to inspire customer loyalty, drive career fulfilment, and be good for business — all at once. No corporate voiceover required.
COTR Stories - Veronica
Key Project Assets
Cinematic Customer Story Films
A suite of emotionally driven films built around real Barclays customers, designed to communicate the Creating Opportunities to Rise purpose through authentic, lived experience.
Induction Event Integration
Films embedded into the Barclays induction programme as the emotional centrepiece, designed to leave new joiners with a visceral understanding of the company's purpose.
HQ Reception Showcase
The films transcended their original purpose and are now displayed permanently in the main reception at Barclays HQ in Canary Wharf.
Impact
The films didn't just meet their brief — they exceeded every metric Barclays had for induction content, and their reach extended far beyond the original audience.
Award-winning work that made people feel
Winner of a Silver Dolphin at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards.
Gallery
Project Insights
From induction content to culture
The lesson is deceptively simple: if you want people to believe in a purpose, don't explain it. Show them what it looks like when it's already working. Real customers, telling real stories, with nothing to prove and everything to share.
Content designed for 300 views a month reached over 100,000. Films made for induction events ended up in the lobby of Canary Wharf. That's what happens when you trust the story to do the work.
Gallery
We showed these films at an event yesterday and they were received exceptionally well. Many people present struggled to hide the emotional impact that they had on them. Very powerful!
Gary Sutton, Learning Designer — Barclays
