The challenge

Create a global content template that lets different markets localise parts of it. We need to a consistent overall direction, from which we can adjust for contextual accuracy on a market level.

Write copy that fits the HSBC tone of voice, while giving a nod towards the global creative campaign.

The creative direction

The Asia Cards team gave us a pitch which showcased many of the creative posters that they’ve been working on. They wanted to emphasise “living life + earning a little cashback”. That was the structure for their creatives, so they were keen to see that come through in the website copy.

The content template

I worked with our UX Designer, Kate Moorhouse, to understand which parts of the webpage will likely need to be localised, and which parts will likely stick with global direction. We also experimented around with whether it’s worth having a table as its own design component or if we could put it into an accordion to keep the page neat.

Based on Kate’s design and UX direction, I built a content template with clearly marked parts for where we anticipate localised content. This way, when we get to market level, the squads working on the localised briefs need only focus on those parts. Besides letting the market stakeholders know what they can change, those parts also reminded us where we’ll need to double-check the information with each markets.

Once the Asia Cards team approved the content template, I briefed the market squads that would be working on the Live+ project.

The copy

I had to work around a few constraints: design component limitations, our website entity model framework, and the Asia Cards team’s creative work which was already in progress. This meant I had to consider character limits, whether the copy makes sense if it gets reused in a lateral link on a different webpage, and if I could find a prominent enough place for the taglines that are already part of the campaign.

I also had to find the right balance in our tone of voice. We should sound bold, but not brazen. We needed to keep the content conservative to meet regulatory requirements, but we needed to capture the free-spirited nature of our audience.

The outcome

I would credit the collaborative nature of our two teams in getting the content and copy just right. There were tricky discussions where we had to make a few compromises or come up with new ideas to create something that we’d all be happy with. But we kept in close touch with each other, and shared materials between ourselves readily.

Some of the positive feedback that I received from the Asia Cards team on this project:

“Thanks again for the team’s support. We love the copy from Winnie and appreciate Kate going the extra mile for the hero image.”

“Hi Winnie, would like to let you know that I like your copy. Fantastic work indeed. The tone matches our card’s personality very well.”

“Winnie is an absolute delight to work with! She often goes above and beyond; her copywriting skills and creativity brings the entire product value proposition to life; it’s engaging and resonates well with the target audience. She understands the business requirements and translates them into customer-friendly content.”

Page search traffic performance

These results are for the Singapore page, from 21 June 2024 to 13 September 2024.

  • +8,071 visits across branded and non-branded traffic
  • +1,541 unique visits from natural search
  • +736 application starts from natural search

And we wrapped up 2024 with launches in 5 more markets which yielded the following results as of 11 December 2024:

  • Malaysia: 20,649 application starts
  • India: 15,123 application starts
  • Vietnam: 8,080 application starts
  • Sri Lanka: 7,198 application starts
  • Philippines: 1,314 application starts

Extra

I was also fortunate enough to take a peek at the creative process for the posters that the Asia Cards team was working on.

They needed to change the ‘Hot and spicy + cashback towards something cool‘ line for one of the posters. It now needed to use the word ‘sizzling‘ instead of ‘spicy‘, but ‘Hot and sizzling‘ sounded off. So they invited me to join them for a quick coffee as we pored over the line.

I proposed ‘Sizzling hot + cashback towards something cool‘, explaining that it probably didn’t sound right because the placement of the juxtaposition was off. ‘Hot’ needed to be the last word in the first part in order to match ‘cool’ which is the last word in the second part.