Xpress Money- #beyondborders Campaign casestudy

An Xpress Money initiative

Case Study

Background

Strategy

Outcome

Insight

Tactics

CampaignObjectivesKeyTakeaways

www.xpressmoney.com#beyondborders

Background

Xpress Money is a leading international money transfer brand which helps millions of migrants around the world send remittances back to their loved ones. Two of the dominant migrant communities, that also form a sizeable portion of Xpress Money’s customer base, are Indians and Pakistanis. With its presence across 150 countries, Xpress Money has a wealth of experience in dealing with customers of both these nationalities.

Besides their geographical borders, these two South Asian countries share a number of things in common. Both nations celebrate their respective Independence Days in August, a day apart from each other. And this fact becomes a point of contention, since it brings back memories of a tumultuous past between the two countries.


Insight

The atmospheres in both these countries generally propagate a sense of rivalry and mutual distrust between the citizens. The overriding feeling is that Indians and Pakistanis are poles apart, and can never be friends. However, Xpress Money has discovered that miles away from their home countries living

in the UAE, Indians and Pakistanis respect each other and live together in harmony.

Why such stark difference in behaviours? What makes the expats of these countries live in such harmony #beyondborders, while they are at loggerheads back home in their respective countries. Do they have anything in common? What do they share in common?

Xpress Money through this ini t iat ive #beyondborders went about finding the reasons of this harmony in Dubai, where Xpress Money has its headquarters. A melting pot of cultures, the desert metropolis of Dubai provided the perfect foil for the brand to carry on with its experiment.


CampaignObjectives

•To position Xpress Money as a brand that understands the emotional nuances of the customers it serves

•To highlight the camaraderie that exists between Indians and Pakistanis when they live away from home

•Create positive word of mouth and feel good factor for Xpress Money

•Increase remittances to India and Pakistan during the month of August (Independence Day Month) by a minimum of 5% compared to 2014

•Position Xpress Money as a brand that connects with all expats, beyond borders

•To increase engagement with our fans on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, large majority of who come from India and Pakistan


Strategy

Building on our insight that Indians and Pakistanis live in harmony away from their home countries, the campaign focused on things that unite people beyond borders. It could be tangible similarities such as love for food, music, culture, sports, or even the intangible ones, including dreams of unity, peace and harmony back home.

The campaign was divided into two distinct phases.

Phase I was carried out in the month of August, timed to coincide with the Independence Day of the two nations and was largely driven by video content.

Phase II was in October – Xpress Money associated with an onground event that brought together two cricketing legends, Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Akram. This ‘Cricket and Beyond’ event, was a culmination of the brand’s #beyondborders campaign.


Phase I• Conversations with Indians and Pakistani nationals living in the UAE, made into a series of video interviews that covered things that go #beyondborders

HighlightsHighlighted aspects of life which erase differences between the people of two countries, such as:

Music Entertainmentand movies

Living togetherin a foreign landSports

• The video interviews brought out the power of shared human experiences that have a unifying effect on people

• To establish the fact that this similarity of thought ran across social strata and income profiles, two entirely different demographic profiles were spoken to, that included

- White collared, skilled expats - Blue collared, migrant workers living in labour camps

• Online and offline integration with activities organized for celebrating the two independence days at labour camps in Dubai


Phase II

This phase of the campaign was run on social channels, Twitter and Facebook and was rolled out in early October. Banking on the love for cricket that both nations share, Phase II was primarily a contest that leveraged upon a sponsorship opportunity and encouraged participation from cricket fans in both India and Pakistan• Xpress Money sponsored a one on of a kind talk show in Dubai, which brought together two cricket legends from India and Pakistan on one platform • The event was a natural extension of the #beyondborders concept as it brought together two erstwhile sportstars – Sachin Tendulkar

and Wasim Akram, who were also rivals, on one stage to talk about their lives playing cricket and beyond• Fans had the chance to win passes to see their two favorite cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Akram together in Dubai There was also personally autographed merchandise up for grabs for select winners• Contest was aimed at popularizing the hashtag #beyondborders and creating buzz on digital channels for the contest• Encouraging conversations about cricket and the two cricketing legends on social channels


A series of 7 videos created

• Two videos each for Music, Sports and Entertainment• Focused on cross appreciation and used people as interesting contrasts• Indian loving Pakistani Music / Pakistani loving Bollywood songs• Pakistani fan of Sachin Tendulkar / Indian fan of Waqar Younis • Indian who loves Pak TV serials/ Pakistani who loves Hindi films• Featured white collared, skilled professionals

1 mega campaign video

• Shot at a labour camp in Dubai• Showcased blue collared migrant workers from India and Pakistan• Highlighted friendships and stories of brotherhood • Gave a message of peace, unity and freedom #beyondborders

Because of the nature of the content, the videos were primarily promoted on Facebook and Youtube

• Special playlist created on Xpress Money’s official channel, titled #beyondborders - https://goo.gl/1g5wLR • Also published as In videos on Facebook • Generated views through Youtube ads and FB promoted posts

TacticsPh

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An onground event conducted at a Dubai labour camp on 14th August, attended by nearly 800 Indians and Pakistani labourers

• Program included infotainment activities and competitions

Radio

• The onground event was supported by Suno FM that had an RJ at the venue who covered the entire event live on the radio channel

Major giveaways • Free movie tickets to a special screening of Bollywood blockbuster ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ for 300 people• One free return air ticket for an Indian and a Pakistani each• 400 gift vouchers from a leading jeweler

•A Twitter contest was run between 30th September – 7th October 2015, and was also supported by Facebook•Users were encouraged to tweet/post using the hashtag #beyondborders and tell us what borders would they cross to get a chance to meet their favourite cricket stars or get autographed merchandise for them

• Targeted fans living in UAE, India and Pakistan between the age group of 18-35 years• Giveaways included 2 Couple passes for UAE residents to attend the ‘Cricket & Beyond’ talkshow in Dubai on 9th October 2015. 2 personally autographed bats from Sachin Tendulkar and 2 personally autographed balls from Wasim Akram

Win 2couple passes

to see Sachin and Wasim liveon 9th October, 2015 in Dubai,

or win coolautographed merchandise!

To participate: follow us @Xpress_MoneyTweet using #beyondborders

Phas

e II


• While seemingly different, people from both these nations are strikingly similar to each other – be it by way of language, food, culture or even their looks• There is overwhelming mutual admiration of each other’s cultures, sports and entertainment• They are also similar in the dreams that they have for a better future for themselves and their loved ones, driven by the same emotions… to see their family happy, safe and prosperous• When living in a foreign country, individuals from both the countries provide support to each other• Intense friendships and camaraderie exists between Indians and Pakistanis that lived together

• An overriding wish to have peace and unity amongst the people of the two nations• The video was well appreciated and garnered many views

• Positive results even on the engagement front on Facebook Video was liked by 1599 people, and shared by 269 of them. 34 engaged actively with the content by way of comments and the links on the video were clicked 87,792 times. The videos reached a total of 961,160 people. We added 203 New fans on Facebook over a course of 7 days.

43,276Youtube Views

172,683Facebook Views

Key Takeaways

In Phase I the focus was on engagement and conversations around the video content we created. We also wanted to gauge the audience reaction vis-à-vis the India/ Pakistan sentiment. We found:


In Phase II the focus was on getting maximum people engaged with the hashtag and to get it trending. During the course of 7 days that the contest was run, we found:

• Great enthusiasm in both Twitter & Facebook users to participate in the contest• A lot of genuine cricket fans participated in the contest and were most actively engaged, sharing anecdotes and personal stories of their admiration of the sport. 38.5% of all tweets that came in, included media such as pictures and videos uploaded by the tweeters

• We received a total of

• We received a total of 2,146 mentions and 711 Retweets• During the entire period we acquired a total of 178 new Followers• A total of 374 people participated in the Twitter conversations

2,424 Tweets on ourhashtag #BeyondBordersTweet


The campaign generated positive sentiment towards Xpress Money which reflected not only in the social conversations and engagement that the campaign received, but also in the business numbers which saw a spike during Phase I of the campaign.

An analysis of the transaction numbers in August 2015 vs the same period next year showed us:

- Remittances from UAE to India and Pakistan went up by a combined total of 7% over August 2014 - Global remittances to India and Pakistan went up by 9% in the month of August over August 2014

Outcome

- The numbers can be attributed to the “feel good factor” that Phase I of the campaign generated towards the brand.


Tweet India Trends - Change#FightFrizz#BeyondBordersDelhiMLAsSahityaAkademiAwardJJHospitalPhysicsSanjay SinghMSMEsIndia-Pakistan#SakshiMaharaj

Tweet Mumbai Trends - Change#FightFrizz#SANDYININDIADelhi MLAs#BeyondBordersSahitya Academi Award#SkrillexWithHungamaJJ HospitalPhysicsSanjay SinghMSMEs

Delhi Trends - Change#FightFrizz#BeyondBordersDelhi MLAs#BeOneupPoliceIndrani MukerjeeSahitya Academi AwardPhysicsSanjay SinghMSMEs

Chennai Trends - Change#FightFrizz#SANDYININDIADelhi MLAs#BeyondBordersSahitya Academi AwardJJ HospitalPhysicsSanjay SinghMSMEsIndia-Pakistan

Kolkata Trends - Change#SANDYININDIA#AadharDelhi MLAs#BeyondBordersJJ HospitalMSMEsSanjay SinghSahitya Academi AwardIndia-PakistanNASSCOM

Tweet

The hashtag #beyondborders was one of the most popular ones on Twitter in India, during Phase II of the campaign It was trending on No.2 across India on 6th October 2015.

It was also trending in the Top 5 across many cities in India, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata

#BeyondBorders trended across India for more than 2 hours between 6:15 pm until 8:40 pm IST. Popular handles in India were tweeting about #beyondborders.


• Trendinalia India tweeted about our hashtag #BeyondBorders 2 times

• More men engaged with the campaign than women. Nearly 50%of the viewers in Phase I were male.• GCC contributed to nearly 48% of all video views, followed by India at 31%• Videos appealed to the age group of 1834- most, with 37% of the views coming in from that category

• India Trends tweeted about our hashtag #BeyondBorders 5 times

• Overall engagement was the highest from the users in India and Pakistan• Age group of 2534- engaged the most in terms of likes, comments, shares, page likes and video views

Tweet Tweet


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Xpress Money- #beyondborders Campaign casestudy

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