The Singapore FinTech Festival is the largest FinTech festival in the world. Since its inception, the festival continues to attract a global community of innovators, collaborators, decision-makers and thought leaders.

With thousands of visitors from around the world and hundreds of exhibitors from across industries, HSBC needed to stand out from the crowd, positioning itself as the leading bank for digital solutions.

The clients came to us to conceptualise and create a distinctive festival booth that showcasea HSBC’s innovation capabilities, acts as a central point of attractionand reinforce the brand’s digital leadership and reputation.

“Where Opportunity Meets Innovation”

With its stature as the biggest FinTech festival in the world, the 2023 edition had hundreds of exhibitors vying for attention and engagement from over 60,000 visitors and 80 countries. HSBC had to maximise the opportunity and create cut-through, both experientially and visually, to stand out from the crowd and demonstrate industry leadership in technological innovation.

By combining the unique purpose of HSBC and the narrative of the power of its innovation built into products and services showcased at the festival, we formulated the idea: “Where Opportunity Meets Innovation”. This enabled the brand to seamlessly weave its iconic assets, innovation stories, and a custom-designed interactive installation, called “HSBC Nexus”, which differentiated it from the crowd and created a cohesive and compelling experience. All of which aimed to strengthen brand reputation, spark inspiration and conversations with diverse audiences ranging from government, regulators, industry partners to tech communities.

The central idea of “Where Opportunity Meets Innovation” was inspired by convergence, reflective of the meeting of minds at the festival and the brand identity of HSBC.

Each area within our booth had a clear role to play:

A generative art installation at the heart of the experience, HSBC Nexus, to engage viewers and draw them into the booth to engage;

An imposing suspended HD digital pelmet with dynamic cybernated renditions of the HSBC logo and live messages, to create immediate standout;

An evolving display of relevant content on screens curated by subject matter experts from HSBC across the four corners of the set-up, to spark conversations and potential collaborations;

An open, inviting and versatile area for scheduled fireside chats with HSBC industry leads and partners, to drive further footfall and engagement at the booth as well as to strengthen brand reputation and thought leadership in finance and digital leadership.

Unique user-generated art installation

A never-before-seen execution in Singapore, HSBC Nexus was a generative art installation which stood at the centre of the booth and acted as the point of convergence from a design perspective. It metamorphosized live data into a realtime art installation. We leveraged the iconic hex of HSBC and its colour palette to produce dynamic expressions of the brand in constant motion. Created by participants’ live responses, they shape, visualize and symbolize a shared journey towards a progressive financial future. Data captured were expressed as unique visuals that explored the concept of convergence, which also provided key insights for the HSBC team around how people foresee the future of FinTech.

Spatial and experiential design

Inspired by the brand promise of HSBC – “Opening up a world of opportunities”, we designed a space which had no demarcating walls, and the view from every angle mirrored the brand's icon.

Through the engaging HSBC Nexus installation, seamless collaboration between the HSBC team and its partners, and the idea of convergence as the common thread throughout the experience, the brand managed to gain effective traction and engagement at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2023.

Over 10,000 people visited the HSBC booth over three days, garnering 1064 interactions with the Nexus installation, and over 400 social posts covered the HSBC booth at the festival.

More than a third of the people we interacted with and surveyed through the Nexus installation expressed strong confidence and optimism in the power of innovation to drive great impact on the future of FinTech, confirming our inspiring and interactive approach to the overall event.