2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

From being a non-player, UAE Food Explorer helped Standard Chartered cement their presence in the dining space and communicated the 15% cashback offer to an interested, engaged audience. It has paved the way for future offers and reinforced the brand promise of being ‘Here for Good’. In just 4 weeks, monthly Standard Chartered card dining spends increased by 17.2%. Inactive cardholders spent 27.6% more on their card. Acquisitions increased by a whopping 25%. The average time spent on website was 2.40 min. (Nielsen industry average: 56 secs). Over 80 new restaurants offered deals while 417 users wrote reviews (and counting). Thousands joined the community on Facebook and Twitter… that’s growing with

Creative Execution

UAE Food Explorer - a community by the foodies, for the foodies. It challenges people to discover new flavors in the dining landscape. To kickstart the grassroots movement, we sent 2 bloggers to 90 restaurants in 30 days. Reviews were posted to the site, Facebook and Twitter, with bills highlighting the 15% Cashback. It was a culinary adventure that inspired the community to write their own rewards. Foodie conversation lit up across social media and brought people from this tremendously diverse population closer. Online polls with delicious prizes boosted participation. Contextual ads drove traffic. Videos defined exploring. And after all the online banter, people got to know each other in person through local ‘Eat-Ups’.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We leveraged our limited budget ($32,346) on channels that would connect with people where they spend most of their time: online. To kickstart the grassroots movement, we sent 2 bloggers to 90 restaurants in 30 days. Reviews were posted to the site, Facebook and Twitter, with bills highlighting the 15% Cashback. It was a culinary adventure that inspired the community to write their own rewards. Foodie conversation lit up across social media and brought people from this tremendously diverse population closer. Online polls with delicious prizes boosted participation. Contextual ads drove traffic. Videos defined exploring. Radio contests had winners joining the Food Explorers for dinner. Foodies met at local ‘Eat-Ups’. And we published the region’s first crowdsourced dining guide filled with passionate reviews, making it a trusted resource and marketing tool for prospective customers. Soon restaurants started contacting us to make deals.