How do you commemorate 50 years in banking? A big party? A name change? A commemorative plate of some kind?
Forget all that. Dream big. You need – a musical!
This is what DBS decided, anyway. The bank marked its 50th anniversary by commissioning a musical called ‘Sparks’ to run at Singapore’s Capital Theatre.
We are of the view that DBS’s own synopsis of events can’t possibly be improved upon, so here goes.
“In SPARKS: The Musical… Chester Teo is a no-nonsense DBS banker who cares deeply about his clients, as he reminisces about his experiences – personal and professional.
“The characteristics that Chester and his team embody reflect the grit, gumption and purpose of the DBS people who made the bank what it is today.”
Believe it or not, the musical is an adaptation drawn from the first season of a 10-episode web series of the same name, which – and again, we’re not sure the original text can be improved upon – “followed a group of dynamic DBS bankers as they navigated the challenges and opportunities at work and in their personal lives.”
Awards
But hold your cynicism; the first series had more than 150 million views and won a range of marketing awards.
Euromoney decided to check out an episode and was agog to find cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar in a cameo role, making a terribly demanding renewable energy pitch and giving the good people of DBS an impossible three weeks to deliver. But they do!
There is also a client who has cut his possessions in half in order to meet the terms of a throttling divorce. (“Zach, I know exactly what you’re feeling,” says his DBS banker, empathetically. “I pushed someone I love away. Some things in life are worth saying sorry for.”)
In a ‘Prisoner Cell Block H’ kind of way it is surprisingly tremendous and has a growing local following.
Belatedly, Euromoney realized we once stumbled upon the filming of a scene in a DBS cafeteria. Had we only tried harder we could perhaps have argued our way into a cameo with Sachin.
DBS, we’re ready to help.
