2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Background

In previous years the UAE recorded 2.53 million cases of customers affected by fraud, which has totaled to a cost of Dh5.14 billion a year. (Gulf News) This issue plagues the entire financial services category, and similar to other banks, Emirates NBD customers reported higher numbers of fraud cases in 2019. As a result, customers are left with a great sense of insecurity. Thus, our brief was to create awareness and education around this dry topic. The main objectives of this campaign, and an indication to its success, was to see a decrease in the below: • The amount of money lost per month because of phishing scams • The number of cases reported • The amount lost per month per case to indicate customer awareness

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

Aside from high coverage fees that banks need to incur, Emirates NBD customers are feeling largely insecure due to phishing scams. That was a challenge as privacy is pivotal to forming strong and trusted relationship with banking customers, without it institutions are directly affected from a brand and business perspective. Analyzing the situation, there are a number of reasons for bank fraud being on the rise: 1. Smart phone penetration (over 83%) making the UAE a target for hackers (Gulf News) 2. Fraudsters are creative and never consistent in the way they seek information 3. Fraud is a mundane topic, approached by several in an informative, dull manner, which in turn has had minimal effect on customers. With that in mind, we needed to educate our customers on securing their account and taking caution with information they share, in a way they will never forget.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Insight Even though customers are aware they need to protect their personal information they tend to exhibit optimism bias i.e. believing they are less likely to experience a negative event and therefore “aren’t motivated to take adequate precautions to stay safe.” (Gulf News) In addition, bank customers are unable to distinguish which personal information is safe to share. Therefore, when customers lose a big sum of their money because of phishing scams, the first to blame is usually the bank or the fraudster. Bank customers needed to understand one thing: There are some things a bank will never want to know, and no legitimate organization will ask for those details. With that thinking in mind, Emirates NBD turned the dry topic of fraud into an informative song that resonated with our audience.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

The creative stemmed from our thinking that a person/organization is not deemed suspicious, until they ask for bank details. Bringing the idea to life To educate our customers on how to spot a phishing attempt, we used the power of music to create a music video of a guy singing in frustration about losing all his money because he shared his personal information with a so-called “bank representative”. On the other side, we had a bank employee singing “It Wasn’t Me.” We made this a hypothetical story to avoid inflicting any negative sentiments on Emirates NBD. Shaggy’s song “It Wasn’t Me” is a significant part of pop culture. It was a hit when released, and remains a timeless song that resonates with people. Hence, it was the perfect opportunity for Emirates NBD to reach the different demographics that reside within the UAE, especially on a dull topic like fraud.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Other than Igniting nationwide virality (championed organically), the campaign led to a drastic drop in the number of fraud cases reported. Results: o Number of cases down 62% o Loss amount per month is down by 86% on average o Average loss per case has also decreased by 67% indicating increased customer awareness