Choosing to move to another country is a big decision and a risky one. It is hard to imagine what being an expat is like without doing a lot of research and hearing from those who have taken the plunge. This gave HSBC Expat an opportunity to position itself as a supportive partner and authority on expat life for its existing/potential customers.

Through a native content partnership, HSBC Expat would be positioned as a reliable and authoritative voice for expats throughout their journey.

We devised a series – The World is My Oyster (TWIMO) - to transform the bank’s survey data into truly engaging content. Six articles, a video and infographic highlighted expat stories and experiences; and a game showed how life might change by moving to another country.

To truly resonate, HSBC’s communication had to be placed in a credible and trusted environment known by its target audience.

The campaign launched on 16/03/2015 and ran for seven months across bbc.com and BBC Capital on desktop, mobile and tablet. Bespoke co-branded traffic drivers and in-stream promotions on bbc.com drove users to the content.

Additional content distribution partners seeded the assets across other premium publishers, generating over 143,000 clicks to series content. One of the best performing elements was a game which incorporated Expat Explorer survey data. Users could choose from 34 countries (which aligned to HSBC Expat's priority markets) and were asked eight simple questions about their current lifestyle and where they might see themselves living. The game then generated country-specific fun facts and insightful knowledge to enable them to visualise their life in a new country.

Social shares from the game also helped grow the audience organically. During each phase, customisable guest boxes, behaviourally targeted banners, and native buyout placements drove traffic based on the relevant KPI.

TWIMO was the BBC’s most successful native series in 2015 and was demonstrably engaging - with nearly 4,000 clicks on HSBC links, and 1,100+ shares of the game on social media and email. Those who saw the content also registered a 31% increase in brand favourability and a 28% increase in consideration compared to those who hadn’t seen the content. The campaign provided 41 leads.

Expat Explorer KPIs were fulfilled, with the BBC delivering four million Expat Explorer recruitment ad impressions and 650,000+ page views. This drove 1,921 survey respondents (10% of all respondents). With the help of TWIMO, nearly 22,000 expats completed the survey. Greater awareness of the Expat Explorer survey was also achieved with 350,000+ impressions from bbc.com. The 12 Happiest Destinations for Expats infographic received 109,000+ page views, with a dwell time of over 3-minutes, demonstrating the strong resonance to bbc.com audiences of the content.