NEIGHBOURSFIRST.SG - YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD. REDEFINED.

TitleNEIGHBOURSFIRST.SG - YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD. REDEFINED.
BrandDBS
Product / ServiceBANKING/FINANCIAL
CategoryA09. Original Branded Digital or Social media
EntrantHAVAS MEDIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Media Agency 2 HAVAS MEDIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Entrant Company HAVAS MEDIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Media Agency HAVAS MEDIA Singapore, SINGAPORE
Production Company WEAVE Singapore, SINGAPORE

Credits

Name Company Position
Jeremy Heng Havas Media Singapore Director, Content and Strategy
Iking Uy Havas Media Singapore Collaboration Lead
Alexis Guyot Havas Media Singapore Meaningful Brands Champion
Kai Ling Seng Havas Media Singapore Digital Media Manager
Ester Lam Havas Media Singapore Digital Media Manager
Arjun Saksena Havas Media Singapore Digital Media Manager
Manish Shrestha Havas Media Singapore Head of Technology
Odie Agustin Havas Media Singapore Digital Project Manager
Vannessa Lee Havas Media Singapore Social Media Executive
Mick Tan Weave Director
Samuel He Weave Director
Karen Wong Weave Director
Darren Lee Fixx Digital Lead Designer
Constance Loh DBS AVP, Marketing
Fiona Chan DBS VP, Marketing
Jeffrey Huang DBS Social Media Manager
Bee Bee Lim DBS Head of Marketing
Chanderni Devi Polo DBS AVP, Social Media

The Campaign

Branded content isn't relatively new to Singapore. In a country where, consumption of content online is almost double than on linear TV (ComScore), brands clamor to be visible in this channel. But major advertisers usually would treat "online" as an extended venue for their creative assets. It's been a practice to mirror TV efforts in online properties like Youtube for pre-roll videos ads and Facebook for video. Although, there has also been an emergence of content producers who have been puting their artistry and craft for entertainment purposes online. More experimental advertisers would go this path to be able to reach their audience, commissioning production outfits to create content pieces that link to their brands. The challenge in branded content is to be distinctive and differentiated - to have a unique voice and tackle one theme and be able to own it. For POSB, the opportunity lied within an aspect intrinsic to their

Results

In Singapore, POSB is an institution. Almost every Singaporean has had a POSB Savings account in his lifetime. However, in a 2013 Brand Health Survey, the bank’s engagement scores amongst millennials were dropping. POSB’s decades of being “Neighbours First, Bankers Second” was no longer striking a chord with the younger customers. This was mainly because the bank was associated with the older generation. POSB did not speak their language. The brand had to arrest this decline and found an opportunity that lay within their target market’s psyche. Millenials were passionate, active and adventurous, they also had a tremendous drive for meaningfulness. They were more than just hipsters. They had their communities and fostered their relationships. Being neighbourly wasn’t new to them. The big idea was derived from this insight. Instead of just speaking the millennial language and being cool and hip, POSB simply had to stay true to their core proposition of being “Neighbours first” and focus on authenticity and the neighbourhood itself. The objective was to refresh and strengthen ‘neighbourliness’ by the strategic use of content and digital media. Instead of traditional advertising, POSB used storytelling and sharing neighbourhood content with millenials to increase engagement and relevance. The NeighboursFirst.SG portal was born. It is a digital story-telling content platform built to house the "narratives of the neighbourhood" – stories about the neighbourhood sourced and produced. Content themes were designed to “refresh the familiar” which meant taking traditional topics, themes and stories, and presenting them with new perspectives. These varied from video/film, photography, illustrations, photo-essays, listicles, or simple animations. The content pieces were amplified through social media (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter) and amplifying partners for discovery media such as Yahoo and Outbrain.

Instead of enticing them to come to us, we went to them. The content pieces were pushed through social media and discovery media: Social Media - Content in social media for their audience to engage with (like, comment, consumed) and to be eventually shared. The content pieces were interest targeted to assure audience relevance and to guarantee site content consumption. Discovery Media (Yahoo Native Ads and Outbrain) - These content pieces were also seeded in other websites and were pushed based on interest and relevance to the audience as well.

NeighboursFirst.SG gave POSB a new voice via sharing the neighbourhood stories. Through content and social, POSB retained its heritage and connect with Millennials while exceeding targets: • Paid Media: Outperformed industry benchmarks by 92% on Facebook, 25% on Youtube, 44% on Yahoo, and 70% on Outbrain. • Owned media: Website traffic exceeded target by 123% • Earned Media: Social Engagement increased by 123%. Facebook Engagement exceeded by 225%. Fans increased by 41.69% - exceeding target by 266% • PR generated SGD 460,000 of earned media and counting– 235% more than media budget. Mostly, NeighboursFrst.SG sparked a new sense of neighbourliness.

For a heritage brand like POSB, a brand refresh campaign usually meant a fully integrated marketing effort lead by traditional media - TVCs, Radio, Print, Billboards, and Digital. But for this campaign, the oldest bank in Singapore took a different route – taking on content and social media to reach out to digitally savvy millennials. NeighboursFirst.SG is a digital content platform built to house content pieces about the Singapore neighbourhood. The strategy was to be present in a non-intrusive way through social and discovery media that allowed millennials to engage with 31 pieces content in different formats. Videos were viewed, not TVCs. Images, illustrations, and stories were consumed, not print ads or billboards. These content pieces were discovered in other websites, Facebook walls or Twitter timelines, not online banners. The objective wasn’t just for the brand to be seen and heard, but to entertain first and be shared.