Cards of Hope shortlisted twice at the MENA Effies 2024

Cards of Hope, made by Almost Impossible for Mashreq, was shortlisted in Banking, Finance & Insurance and in Crisis Response / Critical Pivot at the MENA Effie Awards 2024.

The story

Both are shortlist placings only. The organiser's shortlist page was archived on 7 November 2024.

Mashreq was moving its debit and credit cards from 100% virgin plastic to 100% recycled plastic and asked for a complete redesign with an environmental theme. We pushed the brief further. At roughly 5 grams of plastic per card, eco-friendly plastic alone is rarely meaningful enough to change behaviour or build pride, so we asked why a customer should care beyond the bank meeting its ESG targets.

The answer was to make the card a way into conservation. We identified over 20 endangered plants and animals and illustrated them across the card portfolio by tier. We added a WebAR layer, with no app download, that opens a 3D model of each species and links to Notice Nature, the Emirates Nature-WWF platform where cardholders log sightings of wildlife.

The case study records 2.5M new cards issued and a campaign that reached 11M+ customers.