BDO Unibank has won the Best Social Media Initiative award in the recently concluded Asian Banker Country Awards for its “Project Kiss” campaign that featured one of its celebrity endorsers -- phenomenal star Maine Mendoza.

The campaign, anchored on the message "Abot ang Pangarap ‘pag BDO ang Kausap", was a social media megahit, with the video reaching more than 5.6 million Facebook users since its launch in March this year.

“BDO effectively took advantage of the social media to advertise and market its products. One of the bank’s most engaging initiatives was the Project Kiss campaign to promote its savings account, which has reached more than 5.6 million people in Facebook,” The Asian Banker said. “The bank also implemented a social media e-learning program to provide its employees with adequate knowledge on existing social media policies and effective ways to properly engage and handle customers.”

The Bank also received the Best Deposit Initiative in the Philippines and Best Mobile Payment Initiative citations during the Country Awards, which was held in conjunction with the Philippine International Banking Convention.

“BDO’s Peso Savings Account significantly contributed to the Bank’s retail deposit growth of 23% in the first half of 2016. Extending banking hours and offering weekend banking have helped to boost the bank’s deposits,” The Asian Banker added. “BDO opened new branches in malls to reach more customers.”

As for its successful mobile platform, the Singapore-based publication pointed out that by enabling person-to-person transfers on its mobile platform, it allowed customers to send up to P10,000 to any Philippine recipient without the need for the other party to activate an account.

“This initiative captured consumers’ interest even without a marketing campaign, contributing an estimated 16% share of financial transactions completed through the mobile app,” The Asian Banker said.

The convention is the leading annual conference designed for bankers and financial services professionals to discuss transformational issues that are shaping the country's banking industry.

The Asian Banker runs several international award programs that have emerged within the industry and used as benchmarks by the best banks in the region.