SPARKS, an industry-first online mini-series, follows a group of young bankers navigating work and their personal lives. Inspired by true client stories, the mini-series depicts how these DBS bankers challenge the status quo and go above and beyond when solving unusual client challenges. Since its inception, SPARKS, with its 10 episodes, has garnered more than 250 million views as well as more than 24 million engagements globally, with more than 30 award-wins across the globe.
Riding on this success, they recently launched the second season of SPARKS - themed “Everyday Heroes for a Better World”. Similar to Season 1, the new episodes are inspired by true stories. It follows a group of dynamic DBS bankers as they partner with the community to address some of the most pressing social and environmental issues of the day, such as plastic pollution, equal opportunity, waste reduction, sustainable fashion, and active ageing.
Through Season 2 of SPARKS mini-series, we want to influence and encourage viewers to become more conscious of these issues and hope to instill a greater sense of urgency in everyone to do something to make a difference… for this generation and generations to come. We believe that there is an everyday hero in each one of us, and together, we can all drive change – in big and small ways – for a better world. And establish Brand DBS as a sustainability champion.
Over the years, DBS has been focused on advancing the sustainability agenda, through responsible banking, responsible business practices and creating social impact. It is the first bank in Southeast Asia to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Asia-Pacific, and the first Singapore bank to be named as a constituent of the FTSE4Good Global Index. DBS has also been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the last two years.
In line with our commitment to advancing the sustainability agenda as a purpose-driven bank, we debuted the second season of Sparks, Themed “Everyday Heroes for a Better World” and inspired by true stories. The five episodes are inspired by the stories of social enterprises (SEs), Evoware from Indonesia, Bettr Barista from Singapore and Eco-Greenergy from Hong Kong, Remake Hub from China and LongGood from Taiwan – all of whom are supported by the DBS Foundation. The DBS Foundation was set up five years ago to champion social entrepreneurship and has since nurtured over 300 SEs around the region and awarded about SGD 5 million in grants
Through Sparks Season 2, we aim to spark conversations and galvanise change around key sustainability challenges. The campaign is structured to deliver on three fronts:
The episodes and trailer were amplified via digital platforms, leveraging on sharper interest based audience targeting along with relevant contextual targeting. Apart from communication, each episode was supported by activation events on-ground to drive home key messages and influence positive behaviours. For e.g. for Ep 4 launch, based on ‘sustainable fashion’, we hosted our first clothes swap for employees, driving over 200kg of donated items. Similarly, Bettr Barista, the SE that inspired Ep2, is an integral part of all DBS events, integrated and supported by being our ‘coffee’ partner. Like-wise other on-ground initiatives have been rolled out to encourage people to adopt sustainable practices – like saying no to single-use plastics or aim to recycle and upcycle materials along with adopting conscious consumption practices.
Awareness
The 5 episodes of Sparks Season 2 has garnered more than 160 mn views and ~8m engagements across the digital and social platforms where the episodes are hosted – in each of DBS’ core markets viz. Singapore, Hongkong, Taiwan, Indonesia, China and India.The campaign generating a 159% uplift in brand interest in Singapore alone (measured via Display and Video 360 and YouTube brand barometers).
Advocacy
Positive, action-oriented outcomes were registered from people who saw the videos, where more than 90% of the audiences wanted to do something good and bring about a positive change. (Refer to image 'DBS Sparks S2 YouTube In-Vid Poll')
Business Impact
