Al Etihad Credit Bureau Turns a Library Into a Lesson on Credit
Al Etihad Credit Bureau's 'Majd and the Librarian' is a 2021 animated short film created by Serviceplan Middle East that uses the metaphor of borrowing books from a library to explain responsible credit use to digitally engaged audiences in the United Arab Emirates.
Released on 1 August 2021, according to Campaign Middle East, the film centres on a fictional character named Majd navigating a library presided over by a knowledgeable librarian, whose guidance mirrors the role Al Etihad Credit Bureau plays in the UAE's financial ecosystem. The library stands in for the credit system: books are loans, the act of returning them is repayment, and the librarian is the bureau itself — watchful, fair, and educational rather than punitive. This is Serviceplan Middle East's first brand film for AECB, marking a deliberate shift in how the bureau chose to present itself to the public.
The campaign was conceived as web content designed to raise awareness of AECB and its function as a regulated credit-information utility, as reported by The Drum. Rather than advertising a product in the conventional sense, 'Majd and the Librarian' pursues a softer objective: making credit literacy feel approachable, particularly for younger or first-time credit users in the United Arab Emirates who may find formal financial systems opaque or intimidating. The film was produced by Hanzo Films and animated by Vulturehead Studio, with direction shared between Esfandiar Haji and Shahriar Ghatre. It was submitted as a single-asset film campaign and sits within the finance and banking category. Clapboard rates the campaign 67 out of 100, recognising its creative ambition and strategic clarity while noting the inherent awareness-stage limitations of content-led work at this scale.
Al Etihad Credit Bureau operates as a regulated, UAE-wide credit-information utility rather than a conventional commercial bureau, according to information published by Etihadbureau Ae. This distinction shapes the campaign's strategic logic entirely. AECB's mandate is public in nature, which means its communications must build institutional trust and behavioural understanding rather than drive product conversion in the way a private lender would.
In the United Arab Emirates, awareness and comprehension of formal credit systems remain uneven across different demographic segments, particularly among residents who have moved from markets with different or less developed credit infrastructures. Serviceplan Middle East identified this gap and chose animation and narrative allegory as the mechanism to close it. The library metaphor works precisely because it is culturally neutral, immediately legible, and free of the anxiety that financial terminology can produce. Head of Strategy Frances Valerie Bonifacio and Executive Creative Director Akhilesh Bagri, both credited on the campaign according to Campaign Middle East, anchored the brief in consumer education rather than brand promotion.
The competitive context in which AECB operates is distinct from that of commercial credit bureaux. Globally, Experian reported FY2021 revenue of approximately $5.357 billion according to experianplc.com, while Equifax reported $4.128 billion according to Investor Equifax — figures that reflect the scale of the private credit-reporting industry. AECB, by contrast, functions as a public-interest institution in the UAE, which means its advertising challenge is not to win market share but to shift public attitudes toward credit responsibility. 'Majd and the Librarian' is precisely the kind of brand film that suits that mission: low on commercial pressure, high on cultural empathy, and designed to build long-term familiarity with an institution that most UAE residents will eventually need to engage with.
Esfandiar Haji and Shahriar Ghatre directed 'Majd and the Librarian', bringing a considered visual sensibility to a brief that required financial abstraction to feel warm and human. The film was produced by Hanzo Films and animated by Vulturehead Studio, as confirmed by Campaign Middle East and shootonline.com, a collaboration that gave the work its distinctive hand-crafted aesthetic.
LBBOnline, which published a positive review on 4 August 2021, described the film as 'beautifully animated' and 'touching', noting its effective use of silence and allegory — specifically the equation of returning a library book to repaying credit. This is not incidental praise. The decision to let the visual metaphor carry the narrative rather than relying on voiceover explanation or data-led messaging is a genuinely considered creative choice, one that reflects the confidence of a team willing to trust the audience.
The creative team at Serviceplan Middle East was substantial. Executive Creative Director Akhilesh Bagri and Worldwide Executive Creative Director Jason Romeyko provided creative leadership, with André Couto and Saleh Elghatit serving as Creative Directors, according to Campaign Middle East. Writers on the project were Akhilesh Bagri and Georgia Fattoracci, with Art Direction handled by Kenneth Barnes and Kunal Gagwani. International communications were managed by Lee Sharrock, and the campaign was overseen at agency level by Managing Director Natalie Shardan. The breadth of this team — spanning strategy, creative, art direction, and international communications — reflects the ambition Serviceplan Middle East brought to what was, by format standards, a single-asset web content piece. The result sits closer to short-form cinema than conventional financial advertising.
SHOOT ranked 'Majd and the Librarian' at number five in its Third Quarter 2021 Top Ten, according to shootonline.com, a trade recognition that places the film among the most noted pieces of production craft released globally in that period. For a single-asset awareness film from a public-interest institution in the United Arab Emirates, that ranking represents meaningful industry validation.
The film recorded 6,515 views and 104 likes on its published platform as documented by Clapboard, figures consistent with a web-content strategy aimed at quality of reach rather than mass scale. The Drum covered the campaign on 4 August 2021, and LBBOnline published a positive review the same day describing the work as beautifully animated and emotionally effective — two pieces of trade-press coverage that extend the film's reach into the professional audience that shapes procurement and creative benchmarking across the UAE advertising market.
No further verified performance data for 'Majd and the Librarian' is publicly available beyond these figures. Structurally, however, the campaign demonstrates strong effectiveness for its stated objective. Awareness-stage content in regulated financial categories rarely benefits from hard-metric optimisation; its value lies in shifting perception and building institutional familiarity. By earning trade-press coverage, a production-industry ranking, and a clearly positive critical reception, 'Majd and the Librarian' achieved what it was designed to achieve. Clapboard scores the campaign 67 out of 100, recognising its creative integrity and strategic focus while reflecting the inherent ceiling of a single-asset, awareness-only content deployment without a broader media investment behind it.
'Majd and the Librarian' is an animated short film created by Serviceplan Middle East for Al Etihad Credit Bureau, released in the United Arab Emirates on 1 August 2021. It uses a library metaphor to explain responsible credit borrowing, positioning AECB as an educational and trustworthy financial institution rather than a data provider.
Esfandiar Haji and Shahriar Ghatre directed the film. Production was handled by Hanzo Films, with animation produced by Vulturehead Studio. The campaign was created by Serviceplan Middle East, with Akhilesh Bagri as Executive Creative Director and Natalie Shardan as Managing Director.
Serviceplan Middle East created the campaign. It was the agency's first brand film for AECB. The broader creative team included Creative Directors André Couto and Saleh Elghatit, writers Akhilesh Bagri and Georgia Fattoracci, and International Communications Officer Lee Sharrock, according to Campaign Middle East.
SHOOT ranked 'Majd and the Librarian' fifth in its Third Quarter 2021 Top Ten, according to shootonline.com. LBBOnline described the film as 'beautifully animated' and 'touching' in a positive review published on 4 August 2021, and The Drum also covered the campaign on the same date.
Clapboard rates 'Majd and the Librarian' 67 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's creative integrity and clear strategic focus on credit literacy in the United Arab Emirates, balanced against the inherent limitations of a single-asset, awareness-stage content deployment without documented broader media support.
Al Etihad Credit Bureau operates as a regulated public-interest institution in the UAE. Animation allowed Serviceplan Middle East to present abstract financial concepts accessibly, without the anxiety that formal credit terminology can produce, particularly for younger or first-time credit users across the United Arab Emirates.
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