ADCB

Elevating a financial institution to represent more than just money

Branding, Storytelling, User Experience

The Brief

ADCB (or Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank) had slipped to the third position in the UAE banks. For a larger market, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but in a small market like the United Arab Emirates, where there were five prominent local banks in the sector, this represented a huge loss in market share.

Once known as a bank that understood it customers, and represented the diverse demographic of the United Arab Emirates, ADCB was quickly becoming just another financial institution.

ADCB - Ambition Visualized Microsite (1)

What better way to reach your customers, than through stories from real customers on how ADCB helped them realize their individual ambitions?

ADCB - Creative Direction

Removing money from the equation is no small feat for a bank. But with the Ambition Visualized campaign, we changed the narrative to how ADCB helps customers realise their ambitions

ADCB - Placards

Creating an individual narrative across each customer touchpoint, was a daunting task. But we achieved this across corporate banking, as well as consumer banking

ADCB - Entrepreneur Stories

One of the biggest challenges in UAE, was being an entrepreneur. Business capital was not easy to come by, but ADCB was one of the early banks that focused on startups

ADCB - Real Estate

The copy had to be common through all industries and customer touchpoints, starting with the painpoint, then leading to the resolution

ADCB - Education

Education is a very aspirational goal. Switching the narrative from funding the education, to earning the diploma as the achievement was the resolution

ADCB - Youtube Advertisements

We created a series of ads that were focused on the stories that we created. Focusing on the heroes and their stories

ADCB - Stories Curation (1)

We selected a series of individuals that represented the diversity of UAE, across both expats as well as Emiratis

ADCB - Stories Curation (2)

We selected a series of individuals that represented the diversity of UAE, across both expats as well as Emiratis

ADCB - Ambition Visualized Microsite (2)

Our microsite was created to be responsive and work on a multitude of devices

ADCB - Stories Curation (3)

We selected a series of individuals that represented the diversity of UAE, across both expats as well as Emiratis

ADCB - Faisal

To own a home is Faisal’s ambition. A home that can host a family wedding, enable a sense of place, and even be given as a gift. ADCB Mortgage Services can help make this happen.

ADCB - Haneen

Haneen’s vision for the future is rooted in her strong values and pride for her home. Her ambition to show the world everything she loves about the Middle East means she needs a bank that shares her same values.

ADCB - Jassim

When your ambition is to own not one, but several companies, you need a financial partner whose vision aligns with your own. Jassim’s dream to be a well-respected entrepreneur will be enhanced by ADCB’s experienced Business Banking client service teams.

ADCB - Marco

Like so many families in the UAE, Marco’s ambition is to offer his family security and stability through home ownership. ADCB Mortgage Services can help him provide his family with a place to plant deep roots, which will help them to grow and thrive into the future.

ADCB - Meher

Meher has big ambitions. Her dream is to take her fashion brand global and build a secure future for her family. ADCB’s breadth of Wealth Management solutions are perfect for people like Meher.

ADCB - Nisreen

To support her daughter’s dreams no matter where they take her – this is Nesrin’s ambition. Which she’ll be able to achieve with hard work and help from a financial institution where Free Banking is the norm.

ADCB - Shabab

Shahab’s ambition isn’t limited to one business – he aims to run several. Shahab dreams of working hard and making his family proud, one successful business at a time. From SME banking through to Business Banking, ADCB will help him achieve his goal.

ADCB - Yousef

As a teacher, Yousef understands how important education is to a bright and prosperous future. Which is why his ambition is for his students to be able to attend any school they wish. Education loans from ADCB can help set a student on the path to success.

Your Ambitions, Our Inspiration

Your Ambitions, Our Inspiration. طموحهم مصدر إلهامنا. A film made to put Emiratis in focus, as the key demographic empowering the Emirates into the future

Our Solution

Together with Solve Ideas, we saw an opportunity to evolve the brand messaging of the bank, and not correlate to the mundane financial promotions of its competitors.

It's been said that the first step to realising an ambition is being able to see it in your mind. So, we invited people from around the UAE to close their eyes and visualise their biggest ambitions in life being realised. We believe the clearer you can picture where you want to go, the better we can showcase ADCB as the financial solutions partner to help you get there.

With the ‘Ambition Visualized’ Campaign, we created a message that was a resounding success to its customers and elevated this financial institution beyond just money.

The Results

We struck an emotional chord with the bank’s customers and management, realigning its internal purposes and ambitions, but not only that, but we also enabled the following:

Increase in trust led to 29% lift in new-to-bank customer relationships.
Drove 23% increase in product acquisition.
Brand saw significant growth across key attributes: +22% in “brand understands my needs” and +21% in “committed to my life stage needs”.

Executed with a collection of agencies, including Solve Ideas, Saatchi & Saatchi Dubai, Start JG, Omnicom, and Persuade Productions, we collectively got them to be a MENA Effie finalist.

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