2015 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

(1) +34% increase in online visits for savings plans. 40% engagement > regional benchmarks. (2) 20% increase in savings plans vs. 2013. +10% over targets. (3) The experiment’s video became 2014’s most shared video by a Middle Eastern bank. (4) The video, as a B2B marketing tool, generated partnerships with UAE’s leading schools including networks (ex: GEMS and Raffles). (5) The idea became a part of curriculums. Children across schools participated. (6) Student engagement programs, such as ‘Banker For A Day’ were launched. (7) The idea travelled across social media with parents sharing the “Hey Future Me…” messages of children.

Creative Execution

This was crafted as a unique social experiment that attracted children and their parents from all over the UAE across a new marketing channel for Emirates NBD: Schools. We targeted children with this social experiment via leading UAE schools, enabling affluent parents to learn about their children’s real aspirations and resultantly, increase acquisitions for Emirates NBD’s children’s savings plan, under its Priority Banking proposition. The video was posted on YouTube and shared across Emirates NBD’s owned media touchpoints: (a) The Facebook page, (b) The Twitter profile, and (c) The YouTube channel. And it got more visibility via YouTube seeding as well as advertising. Leading offline and online publications featured the idea across their platforms. And it became a part of school curriculums (GEMS, Raffles, etc.) as a class project, reaching more children and their parents too.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

To reach affluent parents, Emirates NBD, Middle East’s leading bank, sought to help them learn about their children’s real dreams, aspirations and uncertainties about their future and increase acquisitions for its children’s savings plan. All children think about their future. But, 73% of parents in the UAE have not had a conversation with their children about their future. We created “Hey Future Me…” - a real world social experiment, crafted and launched as a digital video; where we asked children to send a message to their future selves. And while the children spoke to their future selves, their parents watched.