All children think about their future. But, 73% of parents in the UAE have not had a conversation with their children about their future. (Source: Truth About Families, UAE, 2014)

To promote its new children’s savings plans to parents, Emirates NBD, Middle East’s leading bank, started that conversation, by creating a live experiment where we asked children to send a message to their future selves.

As an experiment, “Hey Future Me…” sought to know what about the future do children really think about.

And while the children spoke to their future selves, their parents watched.

Turns out, they seek many more achievements in their future than just the professions we imagine them in.

We engaged children with this experiment via top schools, 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.

The idea became contagious. The video that was posted on YouTube and shared across Emirates NBD’s owned media touchpoints: (a) Facebook page, (b) Twitter profile, and (c) YouTube channel, was organically featured on leading offline and online publications.

Leading schools and institutions created school projects, inspired by the video and partnered with Emirates NBD to launch school programs.

This earned PR has enabled 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.

Currently, it is also being developed as a sustainable project for the UAE Ministry of Education.

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).