Liberty’s Thirst and Know Bar which showcased for the first time at this years’ Design Indaba – bagged a bronze award at the Loeries Africa and Middle East Awards held in Durban this past weekend.
“This is a great achievement which we are very proud of at Liberty. It proves that our innovative approach to connecting with customers is beginning to bear fruit. We appreciate the role our partners Grid and Vertical Limited Productions played in bringing the Knowledge Bar to life,” says Sydney Mbhele, Chief Marketing Officer, Liberty Group.
“We recognised that the importance of empowering minds through knowledge, shouldn’t be limited or confined to corporate spaces, that’s why we looked for new and inspiring ways to activate knowledge in a creative and innovative way,” adds Mbhele.
Nathan Reddy of GRID Worldwide said, “Liberty is a Pan-African financial services company that uses ‘Knowledge’ as an anchor for everything they do. Our brief was to showcase knowledge in action by creating a platform that would inspire people and give them the opportunity to inspire others. It is about paying it forward. We have all read about something that changed our lives forever; we want South Africans to share knowledge to create a better country and economy.”
The brief culminated in a carefully curated space that doubled as a bar and a library – rightly named Thirst and Know. The ‘Thirst’ bar was an area for people to converse over a few bespoke smoothies and hot beverages. All elements of the bar were grounded in knowledge – constructed out of hundreds of books, stacked and bound together. The flower arrangements and uniforms were crafted from book pages and an original art piece of the Sandton skyline with interesting facts about Liberty was painted on 55 books and hung behind the bar.
The ‘Know’ section served as an informal library with an entrance framed by an arch made of donated books. Seating resembled pencil erasers and typewriter keys, and signage was made from pencils. The donated books were used as part of a book exchange programme. Delegates were encouraged to pledge and pick a book that inspired them, but to pass it on to someone else after reading.
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Liberty’s Head of Consumer and Trade Marketing, Killy Bacela says, “Knowledge became the focal point of the space. We were deliberate in our brief to our agency partners to create a space that would inspire action because we believe that knowledge is nothing without action. We needed to motivate people from thinking to doing and from doing to sharing knowledge.”
The award coincides with the celebration of Liberty’s 60th birthday in September, a proud milestone that Liberty owes to the continuous delivery of exceptional products, solutions and service in the financial services industry.
