2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

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.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

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 social experiment where we asked children to send a message to their future selves. And while the children spoke to their future selves, their parents watched. We targeted children with this social experiment via leading schools in the country, 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.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

(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.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We created a new marketing channel for Emirates NBD to promote its children’s Savings Plans that proved effective. It was based on a real truth, played a meaningful role and was hence, very believable. It has enabling Emirates NBD to strengthen and extend its retail distribution network for its Children’s Savings Plans as well as for additional products like Life Insurance, to schools via newer chapters of “Hey Future Me…” potentially aiming to expand it even to the Ministry of Education in 2015. The idea retained and endorsed the Emirates NBD brand’s real human stories approach towards communication.