Generational Intelligence: How we brought together more than 25 shopping centres in Spain and Portugal in a single conversation.
Summary
We live in an age of hyperconnectivity, but sometimes it seems as though the gaps between generations are wider than ever. CBRE’s shopping centres in Spain and Portugal identified a clear need: whilst their spaces serve as daily meeting places for thousands of people of all ages (baby boomers, millennials, Generation Z, Generation Alpha…), there was a lack of spaces where people could truly understand one another and come together. The client’s pain point was clear: how to transform a space for passing through and consumption into a social catalyst that would bring the community together? The challenge was not an easy one. We needed a powerful awareness-raising campaign that didn’t fall into the typical paternalistic cliché of ‘the older generation teaching the younger generation’ or ‘the younger generation modernising the older generation’. The real insight was that knowledge isn’t one-way; it’s collective.
Result
Together with the creative agency Creaktivamente, we turned the brief on its head and created a powerful concept: Generational Intelligence. A core idea that argues that society does not progress by replacing the past, but by enriching itself through shared knowledge.
To bring this to life, the campaign was rolled out on a massive scale across more than 25 shopping centres on the Iberian Peninsula. We put the strategy into action through three pillars:
- Local adaptation and social commitment: Each shopping centre adapted the campaign’s visual identity to its own brand identity, working closely with local NGOs to bring real value to each city’s community.
- The Time Capsule: We designed an experiential activation where visitors could write down a wish or a key lesson to share with another generation, placing it in an interactive time capsule.
- “Everyday Evolution” Exhibition: We staged an exhibition of nostalgic and historical objects that demonstrated how our lives have changed in such everyday areas as communication, finance, connectivity and access to information.
A campaign that proved that when we combine the experience of some with the freshness of others, the result is always brilliant.
