The hostile takeover launched by BBVA in May 2024 to acquire Banco Sabadell failed, after many negotiations, in October 2025. In between, there was an exchange of messages and campaigns that will go down in the history of the Spanish advertising industry. And this is what the Jury of the 27th edition of the awards granted by the Creativity Club has decided by recognizing Banco Sabadell’s strategy with the National Creativity Grand Prize thanks to the work carried out by the Oriol Villar agency.

As usual, the selection of the Grand Prize has been made among those pieces that have been first selected by the Jury in the Ideas section as deserving of a Gold and that have also been awarded a metal in any of the other sections. It represents the highest recognition of the contest and has been chosen by a Jury made up of 50 professionals and chaired by Eva Conesa, Partner and Executive Creative Director at Twoelf.

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Banco Sabadell or how to survive a hostile takeover

The strategy, developed throughout 2025 by Banco Sabadell, sought to ensure that BBVA’s offer was not addressed only from the offices. Its objective was to create a social and emotional conversation, appealing to the involvement of both shareholders and other interested parties and conveying the company’s position regarding the proposed operation. In this sense, the campaign actions have been framed under the platform “Choosing is your power”, communicating to users and society their ability to decide on the future of the entity.

Banco Sabadell thus adopted a “David versus Goliath” approach, with which it presented itself as a close and identifiable brand, with a local character and humanist philosophy, compared to a BBVA that has been portrayed as a large multinational focused on its economic growth. Thus, Sabadell’s messages have been based on pointing out the risks of the takeover bid, teaching about the business movement and highlighting the value of the bank as an independent entity. All of this materialized in different campaigns, designed by Oriol Villar, throughout last year.

“Being able to choose is your power”

The strategy began to take shape at the end of 2024, when the bank launched the communication platform “Choosing is your power”, with the intention of highlighting the value of banking competition and the importance of having the best financial support to work, in the case of companies, or to develop and achieve goals, in the case of individuals. The launch coincided in time with the analyzes of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) on the implications of the operation.

Under this thematic umbrella, different campaigns were launched over the months with a more tactical approach that, in addition to having the takeover bid as a subtext, communicated Banco Sabadell’s products and services. Such is the case of “Cocochas”, a piece that invited you to explore the entity’s mortgage options, while highlighting its competitive capacity.

“Dotting the i’s”

Later, the entity’s position of rejection of the business operation was expressed with the launch of “The dots on the i’s”, a campaign that used popular expression to clearly highlight the different implications of the hostile takeover bid and Sabadell’s position of rejection in this regard. In this response that the bank gave to BBVA’s offer, it was also highlighted that, despite the attempted acquisition, the entity was going through the best financial situation in its history.

In addition to the audiovisual proposal, the campaign had a series of graphic pieces that gave prominence to the copies and highlighted specific words linked to both the hostile nature of the operation and the values ​​of Sabadell. The creatives, in a minimalist style, had the dot of the letter ‘i’ written with ballpoint ink as the protagonist.

With the graphics, which were shared on social networks and printed media, the brand reminded that the decision on the operation fell on Sabadell’s shareholders, or also warned of the “excessive concentration” that the takeover could mean for the financial system. In addition, BBVA’s approach regarding a large entity being the one that will best survive in the market was questioned and it was stated that the movement also affected self-employed workers, small businesses and individuals.
Below you can see the case study of the “Dotting the i’s” campaign:

“What do we do with the dragon?”

This action was launched later, on the occasion of the Sant Jordi celebrations, and was based on the legend of Saint George, in which he ends up killing a dragon that spread terror in a town and devoured people.
The bank launched the open question that gives its title to the campaign, “What do we do with the dragon?”, as a metaphor for the attempted hostile takeover bid by BBVA, inviting the public to choose or imagine different options that would change the outcome of the story.
Below you can see the case study of the entire campaign”:

The alternative endings for the legend of the Sant Jordi dragon, which were metaphors for Sabadell’s rejection of the takeover bid, were presented with graphics illustrated by the artist Luis Coelho that saw the light of day on social networks and outdoor advertising. Thus, the dragon was shown writing “People don’t eat each other” a thousand times on a blackboard, holding books with his arms crossed or hugging a rocket on the way to outer space. In addition, through a dedicated interactive landing page, users were able to browse the different alternative endings for the character.

These endings for the “insatiable dragon”, as an allegory of BBVA, were also presented in a corranda, or Catalan popular song, in the form of a fable, thus enhancing the company’s roots. It was performed by Manu Guix, Paula Malia, Octavi Pujades and Carol Rovira, among other artists.

“Notary”

In the final stretch of the year, just a few months before the last vote on the takeover bid, Banco Sabadell launched “Notary”, an advertising short with which the company recalled its solutions for companies while once again expressing its position regarding the operation. He did so with a metaphor starring Food Market, a fictitious multinational in the food industry about to acquire Noguera Alimentación, a family business in the same sector. At the moment of signing before the notary, those responsible for the small company change their minds when they find in Banco Sabadell’s financing proposal an alternative to continue their growth.

The advertisement, which maintained the visual style that has characterized the company’s communication in recent years, relied on a very emotional narrative to translate the complex operation. It once again reinforced the closeness and humanity of the financial institution to continue building the brand. “Each company has a unique story. Noguera Alimentación reminds us that believing in yourself is the first step to growing. Because all companies have the power to choose and because if they believe, so do we.”, commented the brand at the time through Linkedin.

The strategy as a whole was able to influence a context that was very limited by the takeover law and raise the discourse so that the decision, in addition to being financial, was also linked to the perception of the economic and social value of the bank. The campaigns promoted the branding of the brand and reinforced Sabadell’s positioning as a specialist bank and a real alternative within the Spanish financial system.

Banco Sabadell, which in total has obtained 10 metals at the festival, is part of the group of advertising companies that currently lead Spanish creativity, along with Cervezas Alhambra, Movistar, Jumpers and Netflix, which stand out in this edition of the contest for the advertising proposals offered to the market.
For its part, Oriol Villar has achieved a total of 20 awards, including this Grand Prize, which makes it the most recognized advertising company in this edition of the contest and is part of the group of agencies that currently stand out for their proposals along with LLYC, Fuego Camina Conmigo, Ogilvy and VML The Cocktail. It is, on the other hand, one of the advertising companies with the most awarded client portfolio, having collected awards for three different brands such as Banco Sabadell, Estrella Damm and Movistar.

The recognitions collected by Banco Sabadell in the National Creativity Awards predict a successful advertising course for the entity, which already has the Great Innovation Genius Prize 2026, awarded last March for the “Dots on the i’s” campaign.