Creative Execution

For a hyper-personalised experience, we created 6 gift categories with over hundreds of thoughtful, unconventional gift suggestions that Singaporeans couldn’t say no to. In early November, we sparked curiosity on Facebook and Instagram by making people think about what gifts they want to buy for their loved one, then introduced Undercover Santa – the first-ever data-driven digital experience where Singaporeans can find the most meaningful gift for their loved ones in just 3 simple steps. From the microsite, Singaporeans can anonymously ask for hints via email from their loved ones based on their budget, preferences and shopping behaviour and receive customised reports for them to find that perfect gift. Using data collected from Undercover Santa, we retargeted audiences on social and re-engaged them with customised, timely and relevant content to drive them down the conversion funnel, not only to spend more but to even sign up for a card!

Undercover Santa exceeded expectations in driving awareness and engagement, with +91% more website visits than projected. That’s 49% more than last year! Engagement on HSBC’s Facebook page more than doubled than any regular period and 33% more people clicked on all the ads because of Undercover Santa! More customers spent on their credit cards this Christmas for gifts that matter and participated in our Christmas Spend & Get promotion with +7% billings year-on-year and +47% registrations respectively. It was also much cheaper to get people to sign up for a relevant HSBC Credit Card with -218% cost per lead. One thing for sure, this Christmas, Undercover Santa may not have blown his cover, but he definitely blew this campaign out of the park!

We spoke to Singaporeans, listened to their conversations online and based on our research, we found that Christmas is one of the most celebrated festivals in Singapore and a period where they don’t mind and are even happy to spend more to make others happy! But did you know that 51% of Singaporeans are dissatisfied with the gifts they receive as they were last-minute gifts bought hastily because we, Singaporeans, always have “no time”, are too embarrassed to ask or just don’t know what our loved ones want? At HSBC, we believe no one should be unhappy with the gifts they receive. This campaign aims to get Singaporeans to rethink the gifts they buy for their loved ones and inspire them to put more thoughts into gift-buying by pre-planning and starting to shop earlier.