In this Creative Showcase, we are looking at the UnionBank campaign in the Philippines. A leading commercial bank in the Philippines, UnionBank has established a reputation for being the country’s top digital bank — consistently winning ‘Best Digital Bank’ awards for its revolutionary innovations to remain competitive in the financial services space while enhancing customer experience and enabling sustainable financial inclusion.
UnionBank already enjoys an enviable spot in digital banking, but the big goal remains: total industry domination by supplanting heritage brands and fully engaging customers to do everything digitally.
About the Campaign
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Philippine shores, leaving businesses and industries reeling from its impact, a common response among brands was to scale back advertising. Going against the grain, UnionBank recognized the opportunity to turn adversity to advantage, and took the opportunity to leverage the massive uplift in mobile gaming among its target audience and strengthened its position as a 24/7 digital bank in the country.
UnionBank’s campaign strategy involved positioning itself as an efficient and convenient bank that operates 24/7 via its mobile app. By installing the UnionBank app, customers can then have access to hassle-free banking, driving home the idea of why go to a physical bank when you can bank from home with UnionBank?
With the pandemic dampening overall morale, UnionBank chose to deliver this message in a way that would bring joy — uplifting the mood of its customers via a gamified mobile campaign that simulated a trip to their nearest bank.
How did it work?
Building on its reputation as an innovator in the digital banking space, UnionBank is the first bank in the Philippines to launch a mobile campaign with a gamified execution.
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The main objective of the mobile campaign was to build brand engagement by utilizing smartphone Instant-Play™ HD Video to build and deliver a highly engaging mobile gaming experience that excites its target audience. This experience was powered by motion activation and made more exciting by gamification.
The mobile ad began with a compelling video depicting the relatable frustrations experienced by a customer during the lockdown, eventually inviting the user to engage with the game by tilting their mobile phones to navigate through the city to find the nearest bank. The video concludes with an end-card flashing different transactions one can conduct remotely with UnionBank and a call-to-action that invites users to download and install the mobile app.
The mobile ad unit brought to the forefront the woes banking consumers faced during the pandemic, and delivered a fun, immersive experience that amplified user engagement. Combining with hyper-precise appographic targeting, the UnionBank campaign was a stellar hit.
Campaign Results
The UnionBank mobile campaign blasted off with stellar results, delivering a skyrocketing 5 million engagements! The interactive mobile gaming campaign was so engaging that it garnered the highest engagement rate ever in the Philippines and across APAC at 275% (38 times higher than the industry benchmark of 7%). The video completion rate was 88.06% (industry benchmark of 70%).
Daring to launch an industry-first gamified mobile video campaign — at a time when brands generally shied away from introducing anything new — absolutely paid off for UnionBank.
About UnionBank of the Philippines
UnionBank embraces the future of banking and is committed to be the Philippines’ leading digital bank to best serve the growing needs of Filipinos everywhere.
The Bank has always been among the first to embrace technological innovations to empower its customers. With this, it has consistently been recognized as one of Asia’s leading companies, ranking among the country’s top universal banks in terms of profitability and efficiency.
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