In the United Arab Emirates, in a study conducted in Q4 2019 about evolving consumer behaviours in a data economy, over 48% people stated how they are more willing to share their data and have their data used by a company, ethically, if it makes their life more rewarding and easier.
Given the existing financial crisis where people have become more conscious of the value they get from the things and the experiences that they spend their hard-earned money on, financial prudence and literacy are not just a "nice-to-have" but an imperative in one’s life.
So, Emirates NBD, one of the leading banks in the region, has taken an untapped approach from a bank, using customer data ethically and meaningfully, by combining that data with creative storytelling, to show how people can spend and save wisely.
Starting out with a film series, titled 'The Wise Ones', the bank is transforming marketing in the Middle East – it’s not simply selling and promoting its products and services like other banks do, every day in the UAE. Instead, through the examples of 'The Wise Ones' - its most active and benefitting customers - the bank is showing the benefits of its rewarding and beneficial products and services (that are far more advantageous versus its competitors) to people’s everyday lives.
And instead of typical testimonial advertising or heavy-handed educational content, the bank takes a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek approach to demystify financial prudence, by telling the stories through the lens of those who admire, envy or look up to the bank’s customers:
The films have two distinct parts in terms of mood and look, distinguishing 'The Others' from 'The Wise Ones'. As the fans speak about the smart people they know, we see teases of those people through cutaways. And then, when the reveal steps in and the music drops, we see an underwater shot coupled with “heroic” dolly zooms that reveal the bank’s real customers, the names of those real customers as well as the data around how they use a product to the fullest and make the most of life - a novel approach in banking and finance.
The soundtrack, titled, 'The Wise Ones', is an original soundtrack that has been composed for this series.