School of Engagement

GEMS Awareness Day is one of the region’s largest teacher induction events, welcoming between 1,700 and 2,400 new teachers every year. During a short lunch break, sponsors have one opportunity to introduce themselves, while four major banks compete for the same audience.

Almost Impossible developed School of Engagement, a repeatable experiential marketing platform built around one simple behavioural insight: teachers never stop being teachers. Every year, the experience evolved through gamification and interactive brand engagement, encouraging participation, creating crowd energy and naturally opening conversations about Emirates NBD’s products and exclusive GEMS banking offers.

Over five consecutive years, the activation consistently ranked among the busiest and most talked-about stands on the exhibition floor, helping Emirates NBD secure approximately 25% of every new intake of GEMS teachers.

The first activation took place immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing remained part of everyday life. Traditional activation mechanics that encouraged crowds or shared physical interaction were no longer practical.

At the same time, every competing bank was trying to attract exactly the same audience within a limited window of opportunity.

The challenge was no longer about building a stand.
It was about creating a reason to participate.

Whether in the classroom or out, teachers are naturally drawn to learning, problem-solving, friendly competition, and shared participation.

Instead of creating generic banking games, Almost Impossible built every activation around experiences teachers already recognised from school life.

Not because they were nostalgic.
Because they were instantly familiar.

That familiarity lowered participation barriers, encouraged spontaneous engagement and made Emirates NBD feel less like another bank competing for attention and more like part of the event itself.

Rather than reinventing the activation every year, Almost Impossible created a repeatable engagement platform inspired by different moments from school life.

Every edition introduced a fresh classroom-inspired experience while reinforcing the same objective: create participation first, then convert conversations into customer acquisition.

The games changed.
The behavioural strategy never did.

Inspired by classroom maths competitions, Reward-a-Thon transformed banking education into a fast-paced Kahoot! experience where teachers competed using their own mobile phones.

The mechanic solved two problems at once.

It respected social distancing while encouraging mass participation without shared devices.

Every question introduced Emirates NBD products, exclusive GEMS offers and banking benefits, making education part of the gameplay rather than interrupting it.

As restrictions eased, the activation shifted from the classroom to the sports field.

Inspired by annual school sports days, the stand became a running track complete with a winners’ podium, sporting graphics and an energetic host dressed as a PE teacher.

The competitive atmosphere immediately communicated what the experience was about before participants even reached the stand.

For the following year, inspiration came from the art classroom.

A giant digital drawing game invited teachers to compete by identifying illustrations as quickly as possible using physical buzzers positioned in front of the stand.

As each drawing revealed another Emirates NBD product or promotion, learning happened naturally through participation.

The activation also encouraged spectators, with crowds gathering to watch and play along before joining the queue themselves.

With physical interaction fully returning, Almost Impossible recreated one of the most memorable moments in every school day.

Recess.

Four arcade-inspired ball toss games challenged participants to score points by aiming for different Emirates NBD promotions, with smaller targets rewarding higher scores.

Fast rounds, visible competition and multiple simultaneous players kept the stand constantly active while maintaining high participant throughput.

The fifth edition embraced digital competition.

Six teachers competed simultaneously on tablet devices in a fast-paced memory-matching game featuring Emirates NBD products, services, and exclusive GEMS offers.

The multiplayer format increased participation capacity while preserving the excitement, speed and competitive spirit that had become synonymous with the activation platform.

Every year, one element remained constant.

A giant LED display visible from across the exhibition floor.

Long before teachers reached the stand, they could already see the excitement.

• Cheering
• Competition
• Celebration
• Winners
• Crowds naturally attract more crowds

Instead of relying on promoters to invite people over, the activation became its own advertisement.

The audience did the marketing. The result was an exhibition stand that continuously generated organic footfall, reducing reliance on traditional promotional tactics while increasing meaningful customer engagement.

Every memorable activation needs someone who can keep the energy alive.

Her name is Stacy.

For five consecutive years, Emirates NBD’s activation was driven by a charismatic host who became far more than a presenter.

• She welcomed every participant
• Explained every game
• Celebrated every winner
• Introduced Emirates NBD’s products and promotions
• Managed queues
• Maintained momentum

Most importantly, she transformed participation into genuine conversations, ensuring entertainment and customer acquisition worked together rather than separately.

Across five consecutive GEMS Awareness Days, School of Engagement continued to evolve while maintaining the same behavioural foundation.

• Each year introduced a fresh classroom-inspired experience
• Each year, crowds grew so large they extended beyond the stand itself
• Each year attracted teachers away from competing exhibitors

Most importantly, each year delivered measurable business outcomes.

What began as a customer acquisition objective became one of the most anticipated and energetic destinations on the exhibition floor.

Approximately one in four newly recruited teachers joined the Emirates NBD family through the activation.

The sustained success of the platform led Emirates NBD to reappoint Almost Impossible year after year, transforming a single activation into a five-year partnership built on continuous improvement.

Beyond customer acquisition, School of Engagement demonstrated how experiential marketing can become a measurable business tool. By combining behavioural psychology, gamification and live engagement, the activation consistently transformed exhibition visitors into qualified banking customers year after year.

The games looked different every year.

The strategy never changed.

By building experiences around behaviours teachers already understood, participation felt natural rather than forced. That participation created conversations. Those conversations created customer acquisition.

The project also demonstrated something equally valuable.

• School of Engagement demonstrates that the strongest activations are built on behaviour, not gimmicks
• Define the behaviour people already recognise
• Deliver an experience they genuinely want to join
• Delight them enough that the brand becomes the moment they remember

That is how customer acquisition stops feeling like marketing and starts feeling like participation.

School of Engagement demonstrates that experiential marketing delivers its greatest impact when it is designed around behaviour rather than entertainment. By combining behavioural psychology, gamification and customer acquisition strategy, exhibitions become more than brand awareness exercises. They become measurable business platforms that generate participation, conversations and lasting customer relationships.

Rather than measuring attendance alone, brands gain post-event reporting that turns live experiences into measurable business intelligence.