2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

We crafted a hilarious online film to promote DirectRemit - Emirates NBD's Money Remittance Solutions - a product that enabled Indians in the UAE to transfer money to anywhere in India in 60 seconds or less, for free, at the best exchange rate. We parodied popular primetime soap opera scenes to show our Indian audiences how money transfers with DirectRemit do not have to drag on as long as soap opera scenes do nor be as dramatic. We picked 2 popular Indian soap actors and played out what should be a non-dramatic, everyday conversation between a typical Indian wife and her husband who is employed in the UAE, around the topic of sending money home for their child's school fees. But we added the overdramatic flavour, staying true to soap operas. To remain true to parodies, we drew upon popular and very typical soap opera effects and sequences. The film ends by conveying how sending money doesn’t need all the tension and drama; that money transfers with DirectRemit don't have to drag on as long as soap opera scenes do. Because one can transfer money to bank accounts across India, in 60 seconds or less for free! No more drama.

Creative Execution

We conducted the casting process in India to select our 3 actors: 1) The Husband and Father - who is employed in the UAE. 2) The Wife and Mother - who is a home-maker and lives in a garish, overly decorated home (just like in the soap operas) 3) The Son - whose school fees and educations would form the crux of the discussion between the husband and the wife. For the roles of the husband / father and the wife / mother, we screen-tested famous Indian soap opera actors to select the ones who: (a) Looked typically Indian (b) Were aged between 30 to 35 years old (to appeal to the younger Indian demographic profile for Emirates NBD), and (c) Could pull off a dated look and appearance (like they belonged in the 70s; to stay true to the dated look of Indian soap operas) During the screentest, we got them to enact everyday situations and asked them to get as overdramatic as they could in those everyday situations to assess their comic timing, their exaggerations and their ability to parody soap opera scenes. We selected the son via screentests in a well-known drama school in India.