Progressing a career in the 21st century relies on who you know as much as what you know - you need a strong mentor network. This idea of an evolving, strong mentor network was something that HSBC felt it could own and communicate to its audience.

So, we created #IsPossible, a campaign to tell real-life, relatable success stories, and the importance of a support network in achieving these ambitions. It would provide mentoring and advice to people through universal truths that people could relate to regardless of their ambitions.

The influencers we worked with were chosen because they have done great things in their careers/lives, yet they are not famous ‘for being famous’. They also came from three mass appeal sectors (Food, Music, Gaming), which allowed us to provide mentorship and advice in a broader appealing and interesting way.

SB.TV’s Jamal Edwards, EA Mobile Creative Director Chelsea Howe and YouTube foodie influencers, Sorted Food featured in with three hero films. They were distributed to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as well as seeded out on each influencer’s own channels. A supporting content strategy on Twitter and Facebook spread the campaign's reach further.

The videos launched an on-going conversation about career ambitions under the #IsPossible umbrella. We created a YouTube hub, which hosted Q&As with our influencers to explore more of their thoughts around career development and the role of their support network.

We asked people to share their ambitions on social media for a chance to have their own face-to-face mentoring session with Jamal. Those selected used their own social channels to help drive further advocacy.

We also partnered with TED, curating the best TED talks across different stages of career progression into sponsored playlists.

To date, the videos have been viewed 2.9 million times across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Jamal’s was most the viewed video HSBC has ever posted on Facebook.

The posts had an engagement rate of 18% on Twitter (vs HSBC average of 3% and industry average for FinServ 1.9%) and 1.39% on Facebook (vs industry avg of 0.4%)

It contributed to a +48% increase on average in brand sentiment on Facebook and +42% on Twitter - a real achievement for a financial services brand.

And this is just the beginning - this success of the films means that HSBC will be extending the #IsPossible strategy to reach an even wider audience.