2012 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

After we mailed out 70,000 mailers to our prospects, the number of users who signed up for MashreqOnline saw a big spike, with the total moving from 110,000 to 143,073 in a span of two months. This result of 47% and increase in users of 30% was achieved at a minimal cost to our client. The SM also made Mashreq customers more aware about security risks and helped build the bank’s image as a transparent, open bank.

Creative Execution

We set up a stunt using the postal medium with a flat mailing addressing one of the biggest concerns customers have about receiving important documents by post – confidentiality. We created envelopes lined with old-fashioned carbon paper and placed our letter inside. When opened, it was smudged with the fingerprints of all the people whose hands it had passed through. We'd made our point – the letter could have been compromised many times before it reached the person it was meant for. Fingerprinting is associated with security and crime. Our idea used this to demonstrate the risks associated with receiving important documents by post. This one low-cost channel alerted customers to the fact that no one came between them and their personal banking information if only they conducted their transactions online. We let our medium do all the work for us.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Mashreq, one of the region’s largest private banks, launched its branded online banking service, MashreqOnline, five years ago. Since then, the number of users has been growing steadily, but Mashreq was looking to aggressively push more users towards this service for a number of reasons –to reduce the impact on the environment and the cost associated with printing and posting thousands of credit card / bank statements every month. They wanted to communicate this to their existing customers – both old and new, across different income levels and nationalities. Many of these customers were ready to make the switch but simply too lazy to make the effort of opening their online banking account. Our idea convinced them to make the switch to online banking with a cost effective yet hard-hitting direct mailer.