While you spend on others, DBS gives to you

The Challenge

Christmas isn’t a jolly season. It’s a dog fight.

DBS Cards wanted to get a generous slice of card spend, especially in shopping and gifting.

But with a traditional promo budget, we had to do something subversive: Usurp the category and the whole notion of selfless Christmas giving, for something cheeky.

Let the competition be nice and cosy, let us be a little naughty and competitive.

It produced last year’s surprising Christmas winner – the best-ever in DBS Christmas card spend – with over a million unique video views and 23% YOY card spend increase.

How’s that for a jolly Christmas?

The Insight

Let’s face it – Christmas gift shopping is a drag. The holiday rush, the crowded shopping malls & the impossible-to-please mum-in-law. Except when it comes to getting a gift for yourself.

Which gave us a very powerful insight: Everybody loves somebody, but never as much as oneself. This Christmas, with S$50,000 to be won, only DBS gives you something as you spend on others – generously or begrudgingly.

The Creative

We launched with a seemingly nostalgic but naughty filmlet, “Everybody loves somebody”. We see acts of generous gift exchanging – only that the couples seem to get more and more odd, unlikely and begrudgingly. An odd couple, soccer fan rivals, jock and nerd, rival durian sellers, even cat-lover to dog-hater. Everyone loves somebody, if only so as to win $50,000 with DBS Card spend.

To boost card spend at merchants, deals and offers were highlighted through both Online and Offline communication. Integral to our campaign’s ‘Everybody loves somebody’ theme, the ads showed 5 unlikely but likeable pairs of characters highlighting the best DBS deals in town – and at store fronts.

In a two-way interactive world, we got people interacting through an app-tivation. In spirit of gift exchanging, we invited people to ‘exchange’ a friend for an instant gift. An on-ground Social Activation Booth rewarded customers with an instant gift whenever they came together with a friend for a wefie and hashtagged #LoveDBSdeals.

In essence, the campaign took a big naughty-but-nice idea and got customers interacting and the stores humming with sales.

The Results

Unreservedly, this campaign proves to be last year’s biggest Christmas winner. DBS Cards saw a remarkable increase lift in both card spend and app downloads, with over a million views. This campaign had it all – A big creative idea, big activation, big on social media and big sales!