I AM A DIGITAL NATIVEMY LIFE IS IN CONSTANT FLUX – BY CHOICE

Imagine a bank that Digital Natives actually love!

Digital Natives are a generation that has grown up in a fast-paced, fully digital, and globally-networked world. One-third of Digital Natives believe that within five years, they will have no need for a bank.

Sub-Saharan Africa has both the fastest-growing population of Digital Natives and is also home to the fastest-growing economies

in the world. While Digital Natives are quickly entering their prime spending years, they are skeptical of traditional banks. And it’s no wonder, since Digital Natives work, think, interact, and manage their money in a totally new way.

Join our “Banking the Digital Native” campaign to help us reinvent banking for future generations!

Banking is a 4,000 year-old industry that tends to see customers as “segments” that follow prescribed life stages. Banks often serve customers by “product groups” (checking, savings, loans) that operate independently. Bank products tend to be transactional, with fees or rates set up-front for the life of the account.

The whole banking experience seems like a useless artifact to Digital Natives. They have trouble seeing the utility in everything from paper-based account sign ups to traditional credit cards. They’ve been raised in a world of iTunes, Google, Amazon, M-Pesa, and WeChat — a world of fully digital relationships, immediate gratification, total personalization, and transparency.

By choice, Digital Natives are leading lives that are constantly in flux. They may grad-uate from a top-tier university, go to work at a global company, then take a year off to volunteer for a social cause. They may work

a few years then move across the world, applying their skills to a totally different industry – just to stay fresh. They may opt out of owning a car and take Uber instead. Or instead of hunkering down with a big house in the suburbs, may prefer to build their own small house and rent it out, while they continue being flexible.

They often end up in a cycle of learning, earning, and then returning. They’re less interested in stability and more interested in the process of having experiences and making a difference. Digital Natives don’t just need different banking products at different life stages; they need a bank that will adapt to their fluid approach to life, where keeping their options open is the only rule.

Let’s completely rethink banking for the digital generation. Let’s rock the banking world, and imagine a bank that Digital Natives actually love!

BANKS VS. DIGITAL NATIVESBANKS VS.

DIGITAL NATIVES

IDEA CATEGORIESConsider the following idea categories as you imagine a bank that Digital Natives actually love:

1. Payments: How might we design payment systems that are friction-free for the fast-paced lifestyles of Digital Natives?

2. Investments: How might we make investments clear, meaningful, and appealing to Digital Natives?

3. Insurance: How might we create insurance products that adapt to the constantly evolving lives of Digital Natives?

4. Savings: How might we build savings products that allow for fluctuating lifestyles and savings habits?

5. Borrowing: How might we create products that allow Digital Natives to gain the trust of banks while allowing borrowers to live lives of constant change?

6. Wild Card: How might we create an entirely new cate-gory of banking product that meets the needs of Digital Natives?

DESIGN PRINCIPLESYour solutions should clearly address one or more of the design principles for Digital Natives listed below:

1. Easy In, Easy Out: Imagine a bank that evolves with you and adapts to circumstances. That knows your life is in constant flux (by choice) and doesn’t base products on an up-front, fixed commitment, or your past behav-ior.

2. Genuine, Participatory: Imagine a bank that doesn’t act authoritarian, but enables you to make your own educated financial decisions based on transparent infor-mation. It’s from a brand with integrity and even, soul.

3. Add Meaning to My Life: Imagine a bank that under-stands you are more than your bank balance but also your capabilities, social network, character, and accom-plishments. Banks should know you and understand you on a deeper level. Benefits must be meaningful to the user!

4. Simplicity: Imagine a bank designed for people in the age of AirBnB and Uber. Sign up in seconds without pa-per or queuing at a branch. Imagine the user experience being not only simple and friction-free, but beautiful and intuitive.

5. Responsive and Customizable: Picture this - a bank that anticipates your changing needs and responds to it! This future bank will be interactive, intelligent, and responsive.

REQUIREMENTS

Using your preferred medium (text, design, animation, PowerPoint, video), submit ideas that will make banking relevant and essential to the growing population of Digital Natives in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Please address the following idea categories and user needs in your entries:

Beyond idea submission, you are also encouraged to vote and comment constructively on the ideas of your fellow innovators.

IDEA CRITERIA: Ideas will be selected by moderators during the campaign on the following metrics:

• Clarity: Is your idea clearly stated so others can understand what your idea is, who would use it, and how it would work?

• Relevance: Is your idea relevant to the brief? Does it address one of the idea categories and integrate a feeling established in one of the insights?

• Solution: Does your entry contain a solution that addresses one of the idea categories?

The ideas that fit those criteria will move forward to be reviewed by ex-perts using the following criteria:

• Desirability: The idea would be appealing to Digital Natives in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Feasibility: The idea is technically feasible within a 12-month time frame.

• Innovativeness: The entry is truly new for banks in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Best Visualization Criteria:

• Creativity (freshness of artistic interpretation) and Relevance of the entry.

Most Valuable Optimizer Criteria:

• Based on the number and quality of constructive comments you make on other participants’ Ideas

PRIZES

A total of $10,000 USD in prizes will be awarded!BEST IDEA: $3000, $2000 and $1,000BEST VISUALIZATION: Two $1,000 prizesMOST VALUABLE IDEA OPTIMIZER: Three $500 prizes

We will also distribute $500 in smaller spot prizes during the campaign.

GUIDELINES

The ideas text must be in English .If the idea contains a visualization, it must be an electronic file no larger than 20 MB in one of the following formats:

• Images: .jpg/.jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .png• Microsoft Office: doc, docx ppt, pptx, pps, ppsx xls, xlsx• PDF: pdf, ps• Open Office: odt, odp, sxw, sxi, etc.

• Text: txt, rtf• Videos must be under 3 minutes and must be uploaded

to a private YouTube link. The URL should be provided in the idea entry form.

Ideas may be submitted individually or in teams of up to four individuals.

CONTEST DATESIDEATION & VISUALIZATION (Enter ideas, comment, and vote.)September 28- November 20

EXPERT REVIEW (Weekly batches of top-voted ideas will be assessed by our panel of experts, on a rolling basis.)October 26-November 20

JURY REVIEW AND WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT (A final round of review will take place to choose the winning ideas.)November 20-December 11 2015

DESIGN THINKING WORKSHOP (Winning ideas will move forward to a design thinking workshop where they will become ready for implementation.) January 2016

TERMS AND CONDITIONSParticipants are eligible to win multiple prizes. Participants are eligible for prizes regardless of their Swarm Innovation Profiler Survey results.

PARTICIPANTS:— Must register on www.swarmvision.com and complete the short Swarm Innovation Profiler quiz— Must be the age of majority in your place of residence— Undertake to submit creative and original works— Warrant that you hold all rights upon submitted works and warrant that the use of your entries in the contest does not violate any third parties’ rights.— Acknowledge that in case of breach of these rules, the contest Administrator shall be entitled to deem your participation and the prize granting void.

SPONSORThe sponsor is a leading financial services company with offices throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The sponsor is committed to achieving greater financial inclusion of Digital Natives in sub-Saharan Africa.

For complete terms and conditions, see (link)

WINNING CRITERIA

Bongani grew up in a township outside Johannesburg. He excelled in school and graduated from the University of Johannesburg with an honors degree in chemistry. After graduation, he moved into an apartment in central Johannesburg with a friend from university and started working at a pharmaceutical company. Bongani’s job pays well and he has been able to save quite a bit of money over the past two years.

Even though he could afford a nice car and a nicer apartment, Bongani chooses to keep his rent low and drives a reasonably priced, second-hand car. Bongani is hoping to work for another year or two in the pharmaceutical industry, but then plans to start a non-profit that helps rural families get access to medica-tions. When he’s not working, he spends a lot of his free time blogging or tweeting about rural healthcare. He’s fascinated by the role technology could play in the future of medicine. He also loves gaming and has created a community of friends through virtual gaming networks.

To stay up-to-date, Bongani is currently enrolled in two online courses, one about non-profit administration, and another about the intersection of health and artificial intelligence.

Chima is a third year design student at the University of Lagos. She loves fashion and is always up-to-date on the latest trends. After graduation next year, she hopes to move to the UK to work in wearable fashion technology. She’s recently been following trends and research on how “wearables” can pick up on pheromones and influence relationships and the way people connect. Sometimes she feels her courses at university are already out-of-date with the digital world, so she takes it upon herself to keep in touch with the latest digital tools and trends. She recently started her own fashion Tumblr where she posts about the intersection of haute couture, sensor technologies and traditional African fabrics. She has also acquired quite an Instagram following for her fashion-forward, high-tech posts.

Chima loves shopping just as much as she loves blogging. Chima works part time at a boutique to help pay for school, but shopping isn’t always easy on the student budget. She has several apps connected to her bank account, including Qapital and Mint, to help her keep track of her spending. Chima tries to find a balance between paying for school, staying on the fashion edge, and saving to increase her options. She loves her flexibility. She knows she will need some savings if she wants to move to the UK, so she’s already started a savings account.

Nyari is originally from the countryside in Kenya. She studied computer science at university in the UK and is now living in Nairobi and working as an app developer. After university, she took a year off to travel across Europe. When she travels, she likes to use apps like Couch Surfing and AirBNB. She finds that they allow her to have a much more spontaneous and authentic experience than she would if she stayed in a hotel. After a trip, she stays in touch with her Couch Surfing and AirBNB hosts on Facebook or Instagram.

Nyari has a micro-business building and selling custom apps for mobile phones. She uses M-Pesa for pay-ments to suppliers and from customers. She had no real background in business, but is learning by doing. She just started teaching app development to girls back in her rural village. Seeing their faces light up makes her even more motivated to do well and make an impact in her community.

Nyari has been dating someone for several years and her family keeps asking about marriage, but she has no intention of settling down yet. She loves not knowing where she’ll be in a few months. She’s been thinking about moving back to Europe, but isn’t worried about not having a plan. She knows she’ll figure things out as she goes.

NYARI

CHIMACHIMA

BONGANI

DIGITAL NATIVES PERSONAS

1. Products that adapt dynamically: My life is constantly in flux and that’s the way I like it. I don’t want to be tied down. I want to be able to get up and go where I want, when I want. I hate that banks see me as a risky and chaotic customer because of my spontaneous lifestyle. I’m spontaneous, but also very responsible. I wish they would understand that about me, trust me, and design products that change with me.

2. 100% digital: I can do almost everything with the click of a button. I can call a car on Uber, book a room on AirBNB, and send money to a friend on Venmo. I don’t understand why there is so much complex paperwork involved in setting up a bank account. I’ve been putting off getting an account because I don’t want to stand in line and fill out forms. If a bank wants me, they need to get with the digital age!

3. Doing well and doing good: I want to make a difference in society with my skills and my money. I prefer to do business with brands that are making the world a better place, and are not just interested in profits. I wish banks cared about more than their bottom line and sponsoring charity events to entertain their richest customers.

4. Jargon-free: Banking language is so full of jargon, I never know what I’m signing up for and it makes me not want to sign up for anything. I wish there was a better way for me to understand my money – that should be the job of a bank.

5. Empower me: I don’t want other people to manage my money, or tell me what to do. I want to be in charge. But I need intuitive and beautifully-designed tools that make it easy to manage my money myself.

BANKS VS. DIGITAL NATIVESDIGITAL NATIVES

INSIGHTS