2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for PR?

For a bank to communicate about ‘online fraud’, is a case of walking on eggshells. The general sentiment people have about banks is distrust and anger. It’s not easy to pacify someone who’s out of pocket due to fraud. We wanted to be clear on the liability of the bank in such cases, while educating people on how to protect their accounts. This non-traditional approach, with the blessing of Dubai Police and the might of ‘Shaggy’ came through in an unprecedented manner. The positive sentiments to the campaign and increase in awareness are clear indicators that the risk paid off.

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. This was launched with a rendition of Shaggy’s song “It Wasn’t Me,” followed by educational content. 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

Describe 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

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Fraud is on the rise for several reasons: 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 dull topic approached in an informative manner, which in turn has had minimal effect on customers. Emirates NBD needed to turn this topic into a campaign that resonates with our audience, who is any banking customer susceptible to fraud. Therefore, our communication needed to stand out in terms of content and channel distribution: 1. Grab attention: Our rendition of Shaggy’s song “It Wasn’t Me” created a buzz, sparking nationwide conversation on all social channels. 2. Reiterate information: Our hero film paved the way for the audience to be more receptive to our remaining educational content. The phased approach of ATL and BTL collaterals served as a constant reminder for customers.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Given that the source of the issue originated from high mobile penetration, in turn it seemed like the best channel to raise awareness on this issue. Therefore, our focus was on social and digital where we really focused our media budget allocation. The purpose of using social media is to leverage on the potential of share-ability and magnifying the campaign even more. Digital banners and radio ensured that we still managed to reach the rest of our target audience in the UAE. The channel mix was based on the touchpoints that were most likely to reach our audience. The hero content was released on all main Emirates NBD social channels, and the bank website was chosen to drive the awareness message at scale for 6 months. Additionally, the Dubai Police partnership helped amplify the campaign further as the song was posted on their social channels, boosting exposure and reach.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign ignited nationwide virality, championed organically, with 11M views, 91K reactions and 34K shares. Additionally, the campaign had tangible business results, leading to a drastic drop in the number of fraud cases reported, which indicates customer awareness. 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