CIMB First - Beyond Poster-perfect Smiles
May 2, 2019
Fay Ulrica Lee
Collaborating with multiple parties is imperative to making anything successful, and even more so with anything related to Extended Reality* (XR) because it’s so rapidly evolving at this stage. It’s only when you get knee deep that you realise how complex any XR project is, and getting everyone on the same page is critical to meeting objectives.
Having an open mind is crucial when it comes to venturing into new things, and CIMB Singapore was a champ at this. As clients go, CIMB Singapore has been a dream to work with because of their active involvement, distinctive direction, and clearly set objectives.
The main objectives were broken down to:
- Position CIMB as forwarding thinking and early adopters of new technology by integrating XR
- Creatively disseminate a message that has been done to death
The Conundrum: Banks all look the same!
Banking has evolved in so many different ways to provide their customers with a myriad of different services, yet they all look almost alike! To summarise with a popular Malaysian phrase “same, same, but different”. Each bank is fitted with the same clean white walls, smiling advertisements, and neat interior to fit a clean, corporate and professional image. Their interiors designed to maximize efficiency and comfort with obvious signage, multiple counters and seating areas for customers.
A quick look at the advertisements also drew parallels. Saturated with professional smiling faces and large headlines followed by blocks of text that many glances over, banking ads have become so common that nobody notices them anymore. So to differentiate CIMB from the rest of the pack, together with Fishermen we decided to add a whole new layer to their advertisements. Together we journeyed to change the perceptions surrounding ‘the conventional banking experience’.
The work begins…
To meet the objectives we collectively decided to develop an application that would bring the still photos to life, adding an entirely new layer of interactivity, humor, and immersion. The development of the application incorporated many different creative assets that would make up the augmented reality (AR) content. One key goal was to create a user-centered, stable interface that provided an excellent user experience with a focus on making sure information architecture was contextual and followed a progressive learning curve principle. In plain language: make the application fast to load, easy to understand, and intuitive to encourage the customer to explore effortlessly.
We were also very careful about not over complicating or over ‘featurizing’ the application keeping the focus on what the moving posters were saying. Development included a photoshoot, video shoot, post production with graphics and 3D animation on top of the development of the application.
Working closely with Fishermen’s team, we developed the overall communication and design of the application. Through thorough research on the banks products and brand, they provided us with effective creative direction and copy for each advertisement from the look and feel to what information should be presented. The teams also worked together during the pre-production stages to develop the scripts, storyboards and production direction up to post production that included selecting the different environmental backgrounds and interactions.
3…2…1…. LAUNCH!
On its release, our “Beyond Poster-perfect Smiles” campaign was greeted with an overwhelming response of dropped jaws and excited passers-by as they witnessed the first ever AR advertisement from their phones. Potential customers were interested to know what the application was about and how they could scan in-branch CIMB posters.
“Working with CIMB and Fishermen has been an amazing process of creative synergy. We are proud to have partnered with them and are looking forward to further development”, says Ivan Khoo, CEO of Ministry XR.
XR is limitless in possibilities, and we are just at the very beginning of its evolution. Every project has its challenges, and we look forward to collaborating with more clients willing to take the ‘future’ on. XR is not just for marketing campaigns, but is destined to transform our lives… stay tuned to learn more!
