2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In the UAE, the branded content arena for banking and finance services is virtually non-existent. The only forms of branded content that banks and financial brands create are their film ads masquerading as branded content. They lack engagement, participation and hence, don’t become a part of people’s social conversations. Or they just create social media apps and activations that attempt to trigger conversations or get user generated content. Emirates NBD is a leading bank in the UAE that creates effective branded content in the realm of financial literacy. Its YouTube channel is the leading YouTube channel among banks and financial institutions in the Middle East region. And in an era of video being the most consumed and most preferred form of content, while we have always created effective functional content, we now faced the challenge and the opportunity to create more emotional content that would travel, that would be shared and that would trigger positive conversations about the Emirates NBD brand.

Results

Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the United Arab Emirates, was not seen as a bank for Emiratis - the country’s local population who form a majority of its affluent segment. So to win the hearts of the Emiratis, we focused on a major societal tension – the cultural divide between the local Emiratis and the Expats that live in the UAE. To bridge the gap between Expats and the Emirati Culture and instill a sense of national pride with Emiratis, we created The Culture Dispensing Machines. When people stepped up to what looked like regular Cash Dispensing and Depositing Machines, they were surprised when our CDMs asked them to instead pick a topic on Emirati culture. The machines then dispensed an item related to that topic, giving on-screen instructions for people to follow and experience the culture. The CDMs and their experiences were documented as videos and seeded online across Emirates NBD’s owned and social media channels. Leading regional and international media platforms shared the idea. Conversations about the machines travelled across UAE’s social media too. Emirates NBD's dining and rewards program offered discounts at Arabic restaurants for all expat customers. The CDMS will continue travelling across the country, sharing its rich culture with ‎all expats, making the United Arab Emirates, truly united.

We created The Culture Dispensing Machines. When people in malls across the UAE stepped up to what looked like regular Cash Dispensing and Depositing Machines, they were surprised when our CDMs asked them to instead pick a topic on Emirati culture. The machines then dispensed an item related to that topic, giving on-screen instructions for people to follow and experience Emirati culture. The CDMs and their experiences were documented as videos and seeded online across Emirates NBD’s owned and social channels. Leading regional and international media platforms shared the idea. And conversations about the machines travelled across UAE’s social media.

(1) The idea fuelled national pride leading to a 5% growth in accounts opened by affluent Emiratis. (2) 23% increase in calls to partner Arabic language institutions. (3) Earned media of $360,000 worldwide. (4) Conversations about the Emirati culture travelled across social media. (5) Sharing Emirati culture with Expats became the theme for UAE's 43rd National Day.