HSBC, a global bank which is well rooted in the region, opened its first branch in the UAE back in 1946. In 2016, they wanted to celebrate their journey with their customers showcasing their seven decades of operating with pride and passion.

As a result, we decided to create a video thanking everyone in the UAE for 70 years of establishment. In parallel, we wanted to remind people that HSBC was a key ingredient in thousands of success stories and the bank will remain here to help write many more.

The brief had two key objectives:

1. Publish and distribute a video that highlights the contribution of HSBC in UAE

2. Ensure the content is strong enough to generate high traction across social outlets

‘Supporting Human Ambition’, HSBC’s brand positioning and tagline.

HSBC invited the UAE to celebrate their 70th birthday with them. With celebrations comes birthday cake. So they served the great people of the UAE cake. To involve as many as possible, HSBC documented the cake being made through a video. From A to Z they walked their audience through the recipe of the cake, step by step.

What the audience didn’t know was that while they thought they were watching and listening to a video about a birthday cake recipe being made step by step, they were actually listening to the process of achieving ambitions - and HSBC was a key ingredient.

Metaphorically HSBC created an inspirational, motivating and impactful video about achieving your ambitions told through the recipe of baking a 70th birthday cake.

We began the execution by selecting cake recipe actions that carefully fit the metaphor of human ambition. To create a compelling story, we composed the script to carry out dual meaning throughout the video while having a single goal in mind: ‘empowering the viewer’. Finally, in order to entice curiosity and achieve the highest level of engagement, logos and branding were intentionally put on hold until the last second of the video. This was essential to achieving the highest view-ability rate possible.