#LEAwards2021 highlight: HSBC SG swings big to change the CSR game

Coming in as a finalist in the Best Use of CSR award in MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Loyalty & Engagement Awards 2021, HSBC Singapore’s “Swing For the Game Changers” campaign showed companies its innovation and take on CSR. A British multinational investment bank, HSBC has is one of the longest-running banks in the industry, after it was founded in 1865. 

Scouting for promising local game-changers, HSBC Singapore and Wunderman Thompson sought to create a competition that would ignite inspiration for locals to rally together to build a better Singapore for the future. This was where "Swing for the Game Changers" campaign was created, designed to champion local game-changers, grassroots start-ups who were making a true difference in their field of sustainability and community but needed support, or a stage, to further promote their ideas. Here's an in-depth look at what went on behind the scenes.

Challenge

While banks are considered an essential business, HSBC Singapore realised that its share of voice and market shares pales in comparison to dominant and resonant local domestic players such as DBS and OCBC that deliver to customers’ needs. 

Aware that it had to provide a meaningful consumer engagement, HSBC Singapore started to consider different strategies on how it could connect with these Internationalists. Being an avid supporter of events such as the HSBC Women’s World Championship and HSBC World Rugby Seven Series, the company has always used these events to target the Singapore audience. However, in 2021, HSBC Singapore and Wunderman Thompson decided to change their approach to use the HSBC Women’s World Championship as an opportunity to connect with internationalists instead. 

By overcoming this challenge, the bank wanted to score a positive impact on its brand power scores, essentially creating an increase in salience and how the brand is perceived when supporting the community and Sustainability. HSBC Singapore defined the target audiences as Internationalists who were open-minded towards the world and opportunities beyond their geographic comfort zone. 

Strategy  

Initially, HSBC Singapore activated the sponsorship of HSBC Women’s World Championship through rewards, prize driven tactics and influences partnerships. Though these methods elicited short term engagement, HSBC Singapore realised that it had little long-term impact on the brand power or the business. In 2019, HSBC Singapore decided to pivot its strategy to use the sponsorship platform to get consumers engaged. 

Inspired by the strategy in 2019, HSBC Singapore decided to launch the “Why stop here?” campaign in Q4 2020 to challenge its customers, employees and the public to never rest their laurels and be the changemakers that HSBC Singapore knows its international audience are. This then became the communication lens for the company. 

In HSBC Women’s World Championship, HSBC Singapore and Wunderman Thompson thought about how they could use this to champion a new generation of game-changers to show the spirit and intent of the “Why stop here?” initiative. Not wanting the event to be just a platform of hospitality for customers with a high net worth, HSBC Singapore and Wunderman Thompson took the opportunity to drive a larger local conversation by giving them a chance to be part of “something greater”.  This was where the "Swing for the Game Changers" campaign was created, designed to champion local game-changers, grassroots start-ups who were making a true difference in their field of sustainability and community but needed support, or a stage, to further promote their ideas. 

The company then started to scout for promising local game-changers, which would be supported through funding or a mentorship program to further their causes. Activating via social, locals could “Swing” their support via “Likes” and posting an inspiring comment on their reason for voting. To incentivise participation, the first 2,021 voters were given SGD5 Grab Ride vouchers, and a chance to win a staycation at Fairmont Singapore

Execution  

HSBC Singapore and Wunderman Thompson began the execution of the campaign by releasing a teaser video, which aimed to spark interest by hinting at the potential prizes and voting activity. Next, a series of video interviews were released to provide background information about each Gamechanger and their causes. 

The company also engaged established Ladies Professional Golf Association golfer, Minjee Lee to launch the competition.  In order to drum up awareness, various influencers such as local actresses Joanne Peh and Zoe Tay, radio DJ Jean Danker – who were game-changers in their fields were engaged to vote for their chosen game-changer, and share the reasons for voting. Further posts were also used to call for votes and remind the public of the deadline. 

With the social distancing measures in place, the company decided to launch the social activation of the competition on Facebook. According to HSBC Singapore, Facebook is its key platform of public communications as it was the best in communicating with existing and new customers. The HSBC Women’s World Championship is also streamed live on Facebook, driving concentrated landing and views. This allowed the company to retarget individuals who engaged with the campaign. 

Results 

The campaign was well-received among the public, with significant higher-than-average engagement rates compared to industry standards. It also surpassed HSBC benchmarks and goals. Overall, the campaign has proved its success in engaging HSBC's internationalist audience.