EGBank & Isobar go big on authenticity and native creative, with just a Little Pinkie

After receiving an honorable mention in the latest Rock the Tok awards by TikTok for the EGBank Campaign "Little Pinkie", the MENA Creative Agency Partnerships Team sat down with Isobar's GM Marize Sami, and Associate Content Director, Nourhan Mahmoud to discuss how they managed to push the needle on creativity for an industry that typically errs on the side of creative caution and jump on a highly localized trend to drive relevance with their TikTok audience.

What were the business challenges that Isobar solved for EGBank's Little Pinkie campaign on TikTok?

The most glaring challenge was in addressing an overwhelmingly unbanked audience. Roughly two thirds of the Egyptian population remains unbanked with almost 70% between the ages of 16-26; EGBank’s core target. Our main objective with Little Pinkie was to change our Gen Z audience’s perception of banking as an intimidating process through focusing on the accessible wearable technology introduced by EGBank. TikTok, in that regard, was a crucial element in our campaign to not only connect with our audience, but to position EGBank’s contactless payment suite as a solution tailored to the proclivities of a younger generation.

What was the creative opportunity Isobar leveraged on TikTok for EGBank?

EGBank’s main focus is on making banking accessible for the youths and, with TikTok being the platform preferred by our audience, we were able to leverage a wealth of cultural insights that added relevancy and credibility to our campaign. We utilized TikTok’s powerful sound library to select popular tracks that bolstered our message across three content directions developed exclusively for the platform:

• Platform-native adaptations of our hero video promoting the main communication message and CTA.

• Custom video content developed exclusively for the platform using tracks that later became trending sounds (أنا عايزة أقول حاجة and عقباوي).

• Behind-the-scenes content during the production of our hero video using TikTok editing techniques and effects.

One of the things we've heard is that for brands with strict brand guidelines, brands often struggle to think natively for TikTok. How did you manage to maintain the brand's core values and essence whilst remaining authentic and following a native style on Tiktok?

The keyword is authenticity. A brand with strict guidelines means that it strongly believes and abides by its values. By homing in on that core axiom, content will always be representative of the brand and the rest is considered execution. In the case of Little Pinkie, EGBank’s commitment to youth banking was represented in all content created for TikTok which contributed to its effectiveness in connecting and resonating with our audience.

Some brands still take their TV copy as is and crop it to fit the platform. From a production standpoint, how did you manage TikTok-first content when you also had a fully fledged shoot for EGBank?

As a digital-native agency, we place as much importance on content fledges as we do on creative campaigns. Our content development process works in tandem with creative to ensure a holistic, integrated communication strategy. During the production phase, content is always accounted for during the PPM with dedicated timeslots secured to produce platform-native executions. For TikTok in specific, we make sure that content shot on set follows the platform’s set strategy and is flexible enough to accommodate emerging trends.

You mentioned that many of your clients are coming with TikTok-first briefs... From your perspective, how do you see creativity evolving on the platform in the coming year in Egypt and what does it mean for you in terms of agency operations?

Like most agencies and clients, we recognized the platform’s tremendous growth and potential during 2020. The nature of TikTok’s creator community is something that sets the platform apart from other social channels in that it is truly a place for raw self-expression, inclusivity, and creativity. It is a platform that rewards authenticity. It is this capacity for creation that makes us believe that our role as an agency is to primarily encourage and foster the creativity of native creators by facilitating meaningful collaborations and campaigns with our clients.