#MarketingEventsAwards 2021 highlight: Standard Chartered creates 'digital village' for its awards

Since the pandemic hit, many companies have been forced to think out of the box to come up with ways to host their events virtually. Standard Chartered was no exception.

A long tradition of the bank is to have its annual Standard Chartered Recognition Awards, which is a celebration of the organisation’s people, who live and breathe the bank’s values. The bank’s core values encompass: “Do the right thing, better together, and never settle.” 

According to the bank, the awards help shine a spotlight on individuals and teams who exemplify one, or more of these values. In fact, the awards are regarded as one of the highest level of recognitions one can attain within the organisation.

So even with the pandemic, it was important for the bank to celebrate these awards so it decided to create a “3D Village” for the awards show. This in turn led to Standard Chartered clinching the Gold award for Best Immersive Experience at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Marketing Events Awards 2021.

Challenges 

The annual Standard Chartered Recognition Awards is a celebration which celebrates the people in the organisation who live and breathe the spirit of the bank’s key values every day to achieve greatness for the bank, its clients, and communities, within, and around the business. 

Since the inception of the awards, the final panel interviews and awards ceremony have typically been held in different locations in various markets.

However, since the pandemic hit, the organising committee was faced with the challenging task of finding a way to conduct the awards event virtually, yet replicating the same levels of excitement while capturing the overall experience intended for the awards.

Additionally, the awards’ format required certain provisions to be made around the judging process. This included the time for engagement between the judging panel and participating teams. 

The bank broadcast the awards live across 15 times zones to its employees and stakeholders. As such, key considerations had to be made around the planning and organising of this large-scale virtual event. From creative visuals to programme flow, logistics and technical capacity, the organising committee aimed to create a conducive, engaging and memorable virtual experience for its participants and audiences. 

Strategy 

The organising committee had to consider how to bring the event to life in a virtual setting in the best way possible, particularly when participants and audiences were going to be engaging from remote locations.

The organising committee realised the key to the virtual award event was the creation of an immersive and captivating experience. This was done through creative visual treatments and virtual environment designs which were strategically aligned to the objectives and overall spirit of the awards.

From a programme flow and user journey standpoint, a series of digital avenues were carefully crafted and implemented which contributed to the seamlessness of the overall experience. This was exemplified with the development and curation of an interactive event microsite which, among other things, catered to the requirements of the judging process.

According to Standard Chartered, the pièce de résistance was the detailed conceptualisation and production of a fully immersive 3D virtual village. As one of the highlights of the overall awards programme, the 3D virtual village allowed users to navigate through and discover the full extent and array of the diverse award submissions ahead of the live event.

Considering the tight time frame of four weeks, Standard Chartered considered this a remarkable feat. Within this four weeks, the team had gone from conceptualisation to the delivery of a fully functional 3D environment. 

The concept of the 3D virtual village was developed in part due to its resonance and alignment with the bank’s focus on inclusivity – which was to create a place where employees could come together in a supportive and conducive environment that cultivated innovation, and also encouraged the exchange of ideas.

Execution

The development and curation of the 3D virtual village constituted only part of the entire process. It then had to be integrated and hosted within the bank’s internal platform.

Additionally, special back-end provisions were made to allow nominees to submit in-depth information regarding their submissions within this virtual environment. These came in the form of video uploads, digital presentations and related visual assets that they had compiled to present to the judges.

The 3D virtual village also allowed for employees and judges to navigate through, access, and then review individual submissions. This provided the judges with the ability to study each presentation closely as part of the selection process, from which the eventual winners were determined. 

To complete the fully immersive customer journey, employees were encouraged to dive into the 3D virtual village to fully appreciate each project before the awards ceremony, which was broadcast live to audiences across the entire bank on the event day.

The awards were co-hosted by the chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, as well as the group CEO. Other useful elements, which encouraged audience engagement and interaction which were made available via the virtual arrangement, included chat functionalities. With chat functionalities, the audience was given the opportunity to truly be part of the programme. 

Results 

According to Standard Chartered, the reception to the awards programme and virtual environment was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, more than 90% of the respondents polled said they would definitely attend the next awards ceremony if it was conducted in the same manner. 

The event garnered more than 4,000 live attendees on the day and more than 3,000 tuning in to the on-demand replay. The 3D virtual village was also a huge success, receiving a constant influx of visitors eager to traverse the immersive virtual environment.