TSB celebrates Pride of Britain hero with larger-than-life mural

TSB unveils Britain’s biggest portrait mural, created by McCann London, celebrating this year’s Pride of Britain winner

By Creative Salon

26 October 2022

TSB has revealed Britain’s biggest portrait mural in East London to honour this year’s Pride of Britain winner. Created by McCann London - with the support of the7stars, Kinetic and Global Street Art - the mural coincides with the sixth consecutive year of TSB’s partnership with the Pride of Britain Awards.

The mural celebrates TSB’s 2022 Community Hero, Michelle Dornelly. A mum of four who’s worked tirelessly to feed and support families within her community. When Michelle realised many of her neighbours in Hackney, East London, were going hungry, she decided to take direct action. In April 2020, Michelle formed the Hackney Food Hub, putting calls out via social media to gather a team of 100 volunteers to help feed the community. With no permanent base, Michelle and the Food Hub team collect and deliver supplies to four different venues across the borough and have currently fed over 100,000 neighbours in need.

The mural was developed to celebrate and thank Michelle on behalf of the East London Community and the individuals she’s worked so tirelessly to support. The mural includes a QR code in the design, encouraging passers-by to find out more and provide help to the Hackney Food Hub initiative, whilst simultaneously raising awareness of Michelle’s efforts at a time when many may need support from similar services and offerings as the nation heads into a difficult winter period.

The mural was painted by Global Street Art and will be in Tabernacle Street until 6th November and is understood to be the largest portrait mural ever created in the UK. The creative was led by Richard Morgan and Christopher McKee with the mural executed by lead artist Neil Burton.

The mural is part of a wider fame driving OOH plan developed by the7stars, with high impact sites across key UK cities with a skew towards Michelle’s home in East London. The OOH activation is supported by a broader cross channel approach demonstrating how TSB celebrates those that have helped their community during the cost-of-living crisis.

The7stars also worked with Global to develop a partnership with Heart radio, encouraging listeners to nominate people in their community who have helped others. Winners and their stories are featured during key Heart segments and listeners are encouraged to head down to Tabernacle Street to visit Michelle’s TSB Pride of Britain mural.

Emma Springham, CMO of TSB commented: “We’re really proud to continue our partnership of the Pride of Britain Awards and can think of no better person who encapsulates the mood and spirit of the nation right now than our Pride of Britain TSB Community Hero, Michelle. She perfectly demonstrates our brand ethos of ‘Life Made More’. This mural is a unique and eye-catching way of celebrating all that she has done to help struggling families in Hackney. We’re delighted to help raise awareness for her charity and we couldn’t be happier to be supporting her this year.”

Richard Morgan and Christopher McKee, CDs at McCann London said: ‘Helping the community give something back to Michelle - rather than do something more traditional to raise awareness of the partnership - felt like a really strong place to start. We wanted to produce something that means more than advertising.’

Creative credits:

Project Name: Pride of Britain 2022

Client Name: TSB Bank

TSB:

Chief Marketing Officer: Emma Springham

Head of Brand, Content and Social Media - Keith Gulliver

Senior Manager: Brand and Campaigns - Nicholas Lancaster

Senior Manager Brand, Partnerships and Social Media - Emma Beckingsale-Smith

Partnerships Marketing Manager – Oliver Bett

McCann London

Creative Agency: McCann London

Chief Creative Officers: Laurence Thomson & Rob Doubal