Challenge

The Absa transactional banking business unit has an aging user base (average user is 40 to 55 years old), to combat this risk and as a first step to drive account uptake with a younger audience, we had to identify ways to engage a younger audience demographic and build equity. Absa had recently repositioned its brand to a territory that unlocks possibilities and always gives the customer MORE. As part of this positioning strategy, media was tasked to find opportunities that demonstrated how Absa does more for its customers. Further, because this is a retail business, we also had to solve for a way to start seeding our positioning message with a younger audience in order to mitigate the risk of an aging customer base.

Solution

We identified that younger people: 25- to 35-year-olds love passing their time when in between tasks – commuting, waiting is cues, during downtime – with scrolling through social media or playing mobile games. We also identified that people learn about things quicker through gamification because it engages different parts of the brain.

We introduced a mobile game on Snapchat designed to demonstrate to younger consumers how Absa was their partner in making their money go further.

The game consisted of 12 days of play with a new challenge each day. Absa’s unique offerings were dramatised via an unforgettable, and very handsome, Lion with great financial skills to boot! He taught consumers about Absa’s unique offerings in an engaging, entertaining, and most importantly memorable way.

Users got to spend Absa Moola to keep the “King of the Savanna” happy through sound financial decisions.

Through daily challenges, the user learned about Absa’s unique offerings in an engaging, entertaining, and most importantly memorable way - delivered by the “King of the Savanna” himself.

Absa was the first brand in Africa to launch this type of game – making it an innovative use of media.

Over and above the game itself we ran 12 National Snapchat Takeovers, to ensure the Absa game reached all of Snapchat users in the South African market with a bang.

To create hype and seed this game outside of Snapchat, we used a group of Twitter micro-influencers to play with the game daily and amplify this on Twitter.

Result

• 1059% Engagement rate: The mount of times users returned to play with the Absa Lens. Almost 11 times over the 12 Days.
• 16 336 810 lens engagements: An engagement means the user actively chose to play with the Absa Lens.
• 49 years (426k hours) of total play time: The accumulative time all Snapchatters engaged with Absa over the 12 Days.
• 117 534 Saves: The amount of times Snapchat actively chose to save their Snaps WITH the Absa branding onto their personal devices.
• 16.7min play time per user: The average amount of time a user spent with Absa over the 12 Days.
• 39 765 Shares: The amount of times Snapchat actively chose to share their Snaps WITH the Absa branding with close friends and family on the Snapchat platform.
• R0.09 cost per engagement: The cost Absa paid per active play with the game
• 7438 clicks to an Absa Product page after taking part in daily challenge