DBS highlights ‘game changers’ in content-driven branding campaign

After an initial branding campaign launch in June, ‘Asian Gamechangers’ is the second wave of the regional campaign that will be localised for each market. In Hong Kong, the first series of videos feature Lan Kwai Fong founder Allan Zeman. Other industry names include celebrity chef and restaurateur Harlan Goldstein, investment guru Andrew Look and Asia’s first ‘master of wine’, Jeannie Cho Lee.

The videos were produced in-house and will be supported with Facebook, mobile, digital publicity and PR. Glendy Chu, executive director at DBS, said the company has decreased its spend on TVCs to focus more social media and digital marketing.

“We started a Facebook page four years ago and we’ve been actively growing it over the last two years,” said Chu. Regionally, DBS bank has over 300,000 fans. “Our strategy has been to focus more on the daily conversations and content and then think about how bigger campaigns can support that.”

DBS Hong Kong works with agencies for marketing support including Millward Brown for branding, Guru for social media, and OMD for media planning.

Chu believes the company is “leading in social media and digital” in the industry. “Previously we were very product-based in our messaging, but now we’re thinking more about what our customers want to see online,” said Chu. “It’s always more interesting to get a story rather than what DBS is doing.” A key part of this approach has been to find “engaging and inspiring ambassadors” that can “share common sense” while aligning with the DBS brand as top source for insight.

To bolster efforts, DBS Hong Kong has consolidated its Facebook pages and uses a content mix that includes lifestyle topics tied to banking initiatives sponsored by the consumer banking group. “We’ve seen other banks start to use this approach,” said Chu.

‘Asian Gamechangers’ is for the digital and social space, but the objective is to strengthen DBS’s Asian positioning and influence in the affluent segment and across the board. “The call-to-action is that we’re a ‘wealth of experience’,” said Chu.