Challenge

Banking is a highly competitive market that’s seen the launch of many disruptive new services in recent years. These tend to target a younger demographic with less loyalty to bigger, more established high street brands. ​

To defend against these new players, Santander needed to leverage its stature and scale, to position itself as a champion for the young.

Solution

Latest industry research indicated that despite what some might think, 18 – 24s are just as vulnerable to online fraud as other age groups. Our challenge was to help young people better understand the risk of online fraud, in a way that engaged and captivated this famously hard-to-reach audience. 

We created a trojan horse campaign that delivered educational content without feeling like a lesson. Working together with Kurupt FM (from BBC Three sitcom “People Just Do Nothing”) we created MC Grindah’s Deadliest Dupes – a three-episode mini-series that combined Kurupt FM’s much-loved style and humor with important messages about fraud and scams. 

Alongside the full-length films, we created teaser content optimized for sharing on social that specifically targeted 18-24s. We kept Santander branding recognizable but minimal, to ensure the content would be widely used and shared.  

 We also worked with Santander’s charity partner, Barnardo’s, to leverage their specialist reach and ensure we targeted those most at risk. This included social media posts, seasonal newsletters, fraud and scam workshops, a blog post and a news article on the Barnardo’s website. ​

Impact

To truly understand the impact of the campaign on our target audience, we’ve taken the following results from a YouGov survey of our audience. 7.2m 18-24s were reached across Snapchat, YouTube and Instagram, 51% of 18-24s polled felt more confident in their ability to identify and take steps to avoid online fraud and scams. Finally, 25% of 18-24s polled rated Santander fairly to very high in terms of Santander actions regarding fraud awareness mid campaign.