2013 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Despite the fact that the photos needed to be taken in 1 day (December 2nd) we received an overwhelming response of a 1000 photos**. Those 1000 represented 8% of the total photos related to the UAE 41st national day on Instagram, which means there was an 8% participation rate that is never seen before on any submission based competition (benchmark 3 to 4% on Facebook). Nearly 8,000 people were exposed to the exhibition during the course of two weeks after the National day. *** Moreover the exhibition made news worth USD 410,000 over just 4 weeks. ****

Creative Execution

We used social media to invite Emirati youth to share their original photos depicting the festive spirit of National Day in the UAE. Entries were submitted via Twitter or Instagram using the #ENBDNationalDay hashtag. Every time a user snapped a picture on Instagram, the cover photo of Emirates NBD’s facebook page changed in real-time. Next, we took the whole Instagram experience from the virtual to the physical world by creating a real-world Instagram exhibition. Emirates NBD’s biggest branch was turned into a pop-up photo gallery for 2 weeks. And the bank’s customers became the surprise audience. 41 entries, to celebrate 41 years of the UAE, were selected for participation. Visitors were even handed out real-world likes & hearts that they could stick onto images. Emirates NBD gave Insta-artists their moment of fame as well as gave them something more to brag about.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The young generation finds bank advertising annoying and boring. The reality is that banks today simply do not speak their language. As UAE’s leading bank, Emirates NBD wanted to change this and connect with the local Youth. But first we needed to know what makes them tick. We knew Emirati youth love to brag – especially through social media. And we found that Instagram had become their new bragging platform* – not Facebook or Twitter! Instagram’s ‘visual’ status updates were the new status symbol as the youngsters used them to document their daily lives. The mobile app had turned these amateurs photographers into Insta-artists. With the UAE’s 41st National Day approaching, and knowing how Emirati youth express their pride & love to the nation, Emirates NBD sensed an opportunity. Our idea was to celebrate UAE’s ‘Insta-artists’ by creating Middle-East’s first photo exhibition powered by social media.