PHD’s in-depth research turned a product campaign for HSBC’s revamped Premier account into a brand-building opportunity by identifying the shared mindset of potential customers — present and future.
The agency was briefed by the bank to drive fame, awareness and cut through to a premium, affluent audience; those who would be eligible for its Premier account. ‘The key ask was to feel big, get noticed, and drive stature for HSBC,’ said PHD’s media director, Johanna Finn.
‘Whilst Premier is an existing product, our brief was to support the relaunch of the revamped proposition which featured new and improved benefits, such as private medical access, to an aspirational target market,’ added Finn.
The challenge the agency faced was: How do you deliver a product campaign to help spur on acquisition, while also using it as a vehicle to deliver aspiration for the brand?
‘The campaign needed to create disproportionate attention, using spaces and formats that scream stature,’ said PHD’s strategy partner, Lucy Collier. ‘We sacrificed a lot of the frequency-driving placements you would expect from a product campaign, in favour of over-investing in standout, premium spaces — making the most of the moments we knew we could capture our audience’s attention.’
The research to understand that audience took almost a year to complete, said Collier. PHD undertook bespoke qualitative work with HSBC’s internal insight team and partners, and employed quantitative tools to delve into target audience behaviours, motivations, media habits and attitudes towards money. ‘We knew that whilst we were tapping into an affluent audience group, they didn’t necessarily always feel affluent,’ said Collier. ‘And whilst many are aware of these types of premium accounts, they don’t necessarily understand benefits. This led us to a strategy that surrounded customers, furthering the opportunity to tap into the additive nature of the benefits on offer,’ she added.
An additional hurdle was the strict eligibility criteria for the product, and striking a balance to drive a brand-priming benefit for those who were not eligible now but could be in the future. As part of broader audience research, PHD identified a mindset (and connection) between those eligible today, and those with the ambition, optimism, financial confidence and interest in self-growth to also be future customers.
This mindset was connected to HSBC’s past campaigns, such as We are not an island in 2019. ‘We had the opportunity to stay true to elements of a brand narrative that people already associated with HSBC, whilst elevating into a more premium subsection of the audience,’ said PHD’s planning director, Antonia Small.
‘This insight into the target audience’s mindset made it possible for us to turn a product campaign into a brand building campaign, as we could deploy an attitude in our work that would still deliver brand effects against a slightly broader audience,’ added Small.
To bring the campaign to life PHD employed a three-pronged media strategy, to allow for a full funnel approach. ‘Our primary role for comms was to make Premier unmissable, by creating disproportionate attention through highly targeted, bold, iconic outdoor placements,’ said Finn.
‘We used proprietary data from media owners and our OOH specialist partners Talon to identify the highest indexing stations and environments to reach a mass affluent audience through OOH,’ she shared. Takeovers were a focus across OOH, as well as in social, display, audio and impactful print formats, to ensure PHD delivered on the strategy of creating disproportionate attention. ‘All the formats were designed to publicly signal premium status — hopefully from the images and activations you’ve seen you can see how great it all looked!’ she added.
The next part of the strategy was deepening the dialogue with a mass affluent audience, to drive more meaning and connection. This was done by targeting placements where dwell time was high. Environments such as publisher partnerships, influencers, social content, contextual digital audio and host reads.
‘Our target audience is interested in self-growth, so we strived to add value to the experience by tailoring our content to be contextually relevant, beyond just stating product benefits — key for capturing their interest whilst reflecting the additive nature of the account,’ said Finn.
For the final part of the strategy PHD planned timely nudges to encourage switching, phasing all activity and working closely with media partners who had the ability to connect audiences across all stages. ‘We are harvesting all created demand through search, acquisition-led social and display and affiliate activity,’ says Finn.
The campaign went live in February, so the agency does not yet have all of its results, but Small said, ‘Anecdotally, we have heard from the business that there has been a strong WoW [week over week] sales uplift for Premier accounts, and the unofficial audience of wider stakeholders of the bank — locally and internationally — have shown a positive response.’
‘We have a robust measurement scorecard in place across perception, people’s behaviours and product gains, as well as a fully modelled look into the halo impact of the campaign on other parts of the business,’ she added.
Featured image: Premier, from HSBC UK
