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
In an impulsive spending culture, Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the UAE, decided to help its people SAVE and hence, live better lives. In a place where ostentatious displays of wealth are commonplace and IMPULSE BUYING is a trend, we set out to create IMPULSE SAVING. And prove to people that just how they can’t resist impulse buying, they shouldn’t also resist impulse saving!
Introducing SHAKE ’N SAVE - an easy to download app that transfers money from your checking to your savings account. All you have to do is turn on the app, set an automatic amount you’d like to save, shake your phone and save that amount anytime, anywhere.
We launched an entertaining and shareable music video. The app and the music video got the UAE shaking and saving. We also promoted the app through targeting people at key moments of spending across the UAE and at high traffic areas across the UAE such as bridge banners and leading websites.
(1) Shake ‘N Save embodies a key goal of Emirates NBD: Making people more financially prudent. And with saving being the first step towards being financially sound, Shake ‘N Save was created to make savings easy.
(2) It embodies the innovative values of Emirates NBD and while at it, advocates the bank’s strategic focus on mobile banking.
(3) With our execution, we showcased the ease of use of the application to also make saving seem easy and doable – by everyone, anytime, anywhere.
(4) Saving is usually a serious topic. With our execution, we made saving seem fun and enjoyable too.
Activating Shake N' Save was easy — as being mobile, it was the perfect solution in a country that has the highest smartphone penetration, Internet speeds and the largest bandwidth spectrum. We launched an entertaining and shareable music video. The app and the music video got the UAE shaking and saving. We also promoted the app through targeting people at key moments of spending across the UAE and at high traffic areas across the UAE such as bridge banners and leading websites.
(1) We proved that Impulse can be hard to resist, even if it’s impulse saving!
(2) 50,000 successful and active shakes to date.
(3) Contributed to 38% of total accounts opened via digital channels, moving from 2000 to 7500+ which is an industry benchmark over the past 12 months.
(4) Total deposits in these accounts had an overall increase of +500% over the past 12 months.
(5) Won awards at the Banking Technology Awards and as The Best Internet Bank at Global Finance Awards 2014.