CONTEXT:
In Romania 2025, spending is the ultimate status symbol. Your car costs more than your house, your sneakers more than your rent, and the biggest insult is being called “cheap.” While competitors kept preaching with graphs, budget calculators, and compound-interest sermons, BCR built a different kind of financial education: a digital brand experience that people could practice.
We created “Necheltuitorii” (The Non-Spenders), a new role model and lifestyle that proved saving is the smarter flex. The experience combined entertainment, interactivity, and technology to make money habits practical, playful, and contagious.
Our experience unfolded in three acts:
- Phase 1: Teasing (22 Dec – 2 Jan)
Right in peak overspending season - Christmas, we launched anonymously by calling out “chitroși” (cheapskates). - Phase 2: Reveal (3 Jan – 20 Jan)
The insult flipped into a badge of pride: “Necheltuitorii” (Non-Spenders). - Phase 3: Engagement (21 Jan – 21 Feb)
We went beyond storytelling and built tools. Ziro, the first AI financial assistant in Romania that helps you spend less. Through the One Month. Zero Spendings. Challenge, users received daily prompts, playful missions, and real-time tracking of their progress - a gamified journey, that helped turn a boring command, into a real-life habit.
