Standard Chartered My Majlis Brought Ramadan Into Digital Gaming
Standard Chartered's My Majlis is a social media game launched in the United Arab Emirates in February 2011 that brought the traditional Ramadan majlis tent experience into a digital environment, inviting players to build and decorate virtual tents using Standard Chartered credit cards and compete for real-world Eid prizes.
The campaign was created to promote Standard Chartered credit card benefits during the month of Ramadan without resorting to conventional advertising. Rather than presenting product messaging directly, the bank chose engagement over interruption. My Majlis gave users in the UAE the ability to create their own virtual majlis, purchase furniture, decorate their space, and invite family and friends to visit, all within a branded social game built around one of the most culturally resonant moments in the Emirati calendar.
The strategic ambition was clear: to move Standard Chartered from being perceived as just another bank operating in the UAE to becoming the most socially engaged financial institution in the market. The game achieved exactly that outcome. In just four weeks, more than 15,277 fans played My Majlis, with average session lengths exceeding seven minutes per visit. The winning virtual majlis attracted an impressive 2,006 guests and earned its creator a real-life Eid getaway weekend prize. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 74 out of 100, reflecting its creative distinctiveness and measurable social impact within the UAE banking sector.
Standard Chartered identified a structural gap in Ramadan advertising across the UAE market. The month of Ramadan generates an intense surge in brand activity across the region, yet most financial services campaigns during the period defaulted to promotional offers and passive media placements. Standard Chartered and agency TBWA\RAAD, Dubai chose a fundamentally different posture: to participate in the social fabric of the season rather than interrupt it.
The majlis is a culturally specific institution in the UAE and broader Gulf societies. It is a gathering space, traditionally a tent or dedicated room, where family, neighbours, and guests come together during Ramadan to relax, converse, and socialise after iftar. By mirroring this real-world ritual inside a digital game, the campaign met UAE consumers at the intersection of cultural identity and emerging social platform behaviour. In 2011, Facebook-based social games were at the height of their mainstream adoption, and the UAE's high smartphone and internet penetration rates made the format well-suited to the market's digitally engaged population.
The UAE credit card market was also operating under evolving regulatory conditions at the time. UAE Regulation No. 29/2011, which came into effect on 23 March 2011 according to Rulebook Centralbank Ae, required credit card applicants to hold an annual income or pledged deposit of at least AED 60,000. This regulatory backdrop made product education and trust-building particularly important for banks seeking to maintain card acquisition momentum. My Majlis addressed this need by embedding credit card benefits naturally within gameplay rather than through compliance-heavy advertising copy, allowing Standard Chartered to communicate product value in a context that felt genuinely relevant to its UAE audience.
My Majlis is described as the world's first game to bring the Ramadan majlis tent experience to life in a digital environment. The creative execution placed players inside a customisable virtual space that faithfully reflected the aesthetic and social logic of a real majlis gathering. On screen, users selected and arranged furnishings, decorated their tent with culturally appropriate elements, and then opened their virtual space to guests, replicating the hospitality dynamic that defines the majlis tradition in the UAE. Purchases within the game were made using Standard Chartered credit cards, weaving the product proposition seamlessly into the act of play rather than presenting it as a separate sales message. The most popular majlis, rated by the number of guests who visited, won a real-world Eid getaway weekend, giving the competitive mechanic genuine emotional stakes tied to one of the most celebrated moments in the Islamic calendar.
The campaign was produced by TBWA\RAAD, Dubai, the agency credited with the creative and digital development of the My Majlis platform. The execution sits within the digital medium, delivered as a social game with a single documented media asset. Production credits beyond the agency attribution for My Majlis are not publicly documented in available sources. What the execution demonstrates, however, is a disciplined integration of cultural insight and product utility: every interaction a player had with the virtual majlis reinforced an understanding of what a Standard Chartered credit card could do, without the game ever feeling like an advertisement. The result was an average session duration exceeding seven minutes per visit, a figure that speaks directly to the depth of engagement the creative format was able to generate among UAE players during Ramadan 2011.
Standard Chartered's My Majlis campaign produced verified, quantifiable results within a compressed four-week activation window in the UAE. More than 15,277 fans played the game during that period, with average visit durations exceeding seven minutes, a level of voluntary dwell time that is exceptionally high for a branded digital experience. The winning virtual majlis attracted 2,006 guests, demonstrating genuine peer-to-peer sharing behaviour driven by the competitive mechanic rather than paid amplification.
Beyond participation numbers, the campaign achieved its stated strategic objective. Standard Chartered became the most socially engaged bank in the United Arab Emirates during the activation period, shifting the brand's perceived role from a transactional financial institution to a culturally connected participant in Ramadan life. Players simultaneously learned about Standard Chartered credit card benefits through the act of gameplay, delivering product education without the friction of conventional advertising formats.
The campaign received industry recognition across multiple award bodies. According to linkedin.com and Wordpress Sabisin, My Majlis earned a Dubai Lynx Bronze award in the Websites category in 2011 and was shortlisted in the Apps category at the same festival. The campaign was also shortlisted for the GEMAS Effies, further validating its effectiveness credentials within the regional market. These results collectively confirm that My Majlis succeeded as both a culturally resonant creative work and a performance-driven banking campaign in the UAE, demonstrating that social engagement and product communication are not mutually exclusive objectives in digital marketing.
My Majlis was a social media game launched in the United Arab Emirates in February 2011 to promote Standard Chartered credit card benefits during Ramadan. Players built and decorated virtual majlis tents, purchased in-game items using Standard Chartered cards, and competed for real-world Eid prizes based on guest ratings.
More than 15,277 fans played My Majlis over its four-week activation period in the UAE. Average session length exceeded seven minutes per visit, indicating strong voluntary engagement with the branded game well beyond typical digital advertising interaction benchmarks for the period.
My Majlis won a Dubai Lynx Bronze award in the Websites category in 2011, according to linkedin.com and wordpress.sabisin.com. It was also shortlisted in the Dubai Lynx Apps category and received a GEMAS Effies shortlist, recognising both its creative execution and its effectiveness within the UAE market.
TBWA\RAAD, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, created the My Majlis social media game for Standard Chartered. The campaign was developed as a digital engagement platform built around the cultural tradition of the Ramadan majlis gathering, designed to connect UAE consumers with Standard Chartered credit card benefits through gameplay.
Standard Chartered chose social engagement over conventional Ramadan advertising to cut through the seasonal clutter of financial services promotions in the UAE. By mirroring the communal majlis experience digitally, the campaign embedded credit card benefits within culturally meaningful gameplay, building brand affinity and product understanding simultaneously among UAE consumers.
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