Tamim Daoud | brand communications & analytics

• Background: In 2014, United Arab Bank (UAB) was on the verge of celebrating its 40 years in the UAE market. UAB’s position as the fastest growing bank in the UAE fueled its ambition to become a top 5 bank in the Emirates. Moreover, UAB’s wide UAE network & decades of exclusive experience in the local market allowed it to adopt a contender attitude.

• Challenge: The main challenge lay in UAB's low brand visibility, and, therefore, the risk of low recognition of new products/services in the face of more dynamic local banks.

• Solution: Reintroducing UAB's 3 flagship products (home loan, cash flow loan, and rewards program) to a wider target audience via digital, social, and experiential media. The very few preceding campaigns indicated to that an overwhelmingly digital approach would be the best solution to compliment UAB’s warm, personal customer service.

• Results: A disruptive campaign headlined with ‘Can Your Bank Do This?’, on the back of a new strategy that told a compelling brand story and redesigned its visuals across branches and online/offline media. Combined with a retail area facelift, the growth idea leveraged the bank’s ambition and tapped in to a core consumer need. By auditing the brand and reinterpreting the visuals in accordance with the customer journey, ‘The Story of Growth’ became the cornerstone of the bank’s new expression.

• Beyond the campaign: The digital execution enabled measurable results campaign provoked response from both customers and competitors alike. The website, Facebook page, and digital ads yielded an unprecedented number of leads and quantifiable responses. Furthermore, this headline lived on through ensuing campaigns for other UAB distinctive products such as the 'best personal loan for business owners’ and ‘bank before you land, in addition to the design of internal communications and the UX/UI of internal platforms.

brand facelift - brand story, key product messages, retail environments, storefronts