After three divisive years, the United Kingdom parliament finally voted to deliver Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit bill that would see the UK leave the European Union.

In the run-up to this, the country had experienced the highest spike in religious and racial hate crimes ever recorded. Leaving minority groups across the country feeling vulnerable and alone.

Our competitors had responded by becoming nostalgic and inward-looking, harking back to ‘the good old days’, but there was a clear opportunity to stand for something different.

As a bank with 155 years of international trade heritage to our name, we needed to stand for the values of building bridges, not walls. So we questioned the concept of national identity by asking the nation, “Where are you from?”

We used the question, “Where are you from?” to explore the concept of national identity at a time when hate crimes and xenophobia were on the rise in the United Kingdom as a direct result of Brexit Britain’s exit from the European Union).

It’s a simple question that’s often asked as a way to get to know one another better, or so we assume. But it can also be a loaded question with the underlying message “you don’t belong here, you’re an outsider.”

Fronted by Richard Ayoade, the UK-born son of a Nigerian and Norwegian, our campaign got the nation to ponder if asking this question felt reductive and failed to capture the nuances of someone’s life experience. Asking them to consider if, “Where are you local?" might be a better alternative.