2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

In a traditionally patriarchal society like the UAE, people, even within the local community, still believe Emirati women to be only preoccupied with looks, fashion and luxury, unaware of their unbelievable achievements and advancements. Emirati women nowadays equally contribute to the societal and economic growth, be it in governmental or private sectors. However, this remains unknown to most. As the leading national bank, growth and development of human wealth is very important to us at Emirates NBD. On the occasion of Emirati Women’s Day, we took it upon us to break this stereotype and reveal the realities.

Describe the creative idea.

Essentially, we wanted to break the stereotype about Emirati women, by revealing surprising hard-hitting facts and numbers of their achievements and breakthroughs in different fields and across various professions. We chose Instagram, a platform that is widely known for its vanity appeal, to accentuate the irony of using fashion photography as our visual language to bust the misconceptions about Emirati women’s superficiality. You would think you’re watching a fashion advertisement, but instantly you realize that what these objects truly represent are the Emirati women. The challenge was to steer away from the cliché and to create actual informative yet entertaining communication that appeals to our local target audience.

Describe the strategy.

Since our primary target audience is Emirati women (ages 16-45), we’ve tailored the campaign to Instagram; a platform that appeals to them most. Our secondary audience in mind is the Emirati community, and lastly the expats living in the UAE. In terms of data collection, we’ve gathered information and statistics through social listening, focus groups, online publications and news agencies, such as Gulf News, The National, Emirates Women, and Al Khaleej Times.

Describe the execution.

The one-day campaign lived solely on Instagram and went live only on Emirati Women’s Day, August 28th. It launched with a social film and then was supported by 8 posts and Instagram stories.

List the results.

In just 24 hours, this Instagram campaign received 6.7 million impressions, 826 thousand views and 648 thousand likes, comments and shares. It generated the highest engagement results in the brand’s history.