All children think about their future. But, 73% of our target i.e. affluent parents in the UAE have not had a conversation with their children about their future.

We created “Hey Future Me…” - a social experiment where we asked children to send a message to their future selves. And while the children spoke to their future selves, their parents watched.

We targeted children with this social experiment via leading schools in the country, enabling affluent parents to learn about their children’s real aspirations and resultantly, increase acquisitions for Emirates NBD’s children’s savings plan, under its Priority Banking proposition.

"Hey Future Me..." was a targeted direct idea (a live experiment targeted to affluent parents via their children through schools) designed to generate a response (parents seeing their children imagine their own future) and a specific action (sign up with representatives at the school) to trigger acquisitions for Emirates NBD's new children's savings plans.

As an online video, the film reached parents across the UAE, directing them to the website to the landing page of children's savings plans and generating more leads and subsequently, more acquisitions.

The experiment and the video not only generated acquisitions, but created an entirely new conversation between parents and children about the children's future dreams, goals and anxieties.

And owing to its contagious nature, it became a part of class projects and school curriculums, attracting over 30 schools from leading networks as B2B partners for Emirates NBD.

We created a new acquisition channel for Emirates NBD to promote its children’s Savings Plans that was untapped hence, effective.

It was based on a real truth, played a meaningful role and was hence, very believable.

It has Emirates NBD to strengthen and extend its retail distribution network for its Children’s Savings Plans as well as for additional products like Life Insurance, to schools via newer chapters of “Hey Future Me…” potentially aiming to expand it even to the Ministry of Education in 2015.

The idea retained and endorsed the Emirates NBD brand’s real human stories approach towards communication.

(1) 34% increase in online visits for savings plans.

(2) Engagement onsite was 40% above regional benchmarks.

(3) 20% increase in savings plans vs. 2013.

(4) 10% growth over targets.

(5) The video became one of the most shared videos in the Middle East.

(6) The video, as a B2B marketing tool, generated partnerships with leading schools including networks such as GEMS and Raffles.

(7) Student engagement programs, such as ‘Banker For A Day’ were launched.

(8) Children across schools participated. The idea became a part of curriculums and class projects, generating several “Hey Future Me…” videos.

(9) The idea travelled as parents shared “Hey Future Me…” messages across social media.

(10) Being developed as a sustainable project for UAE's Ministry of Education.

(11) Won a Gold Effie, 2 Gold Midas Awards and 1 Grand Prix at Dubai Lynx (organized by Cannes Lions).

Emirates NBD, Middle East’s leading bank, was seeking to increase acquisitions for children’s savings plans, under its Priority Banking proposition.

To reach and acquire affluent parents, we wanted to help them learn about their children’s real dreams, aspirations and uncertainties about their future.

And thus, by making the parents realize the importance of saving now for the future, we could increase acquisitions for Emirates NBDs children’s savings plans.