ABN Amro has taken a novel approach to recruiting fresh talent, creating a fictional future in a mobile gaming app and challenging prospects to use their tech skills to prevent a financial meltdown.
Dubbed the Lockdown, the augmented reality app transports players to the year 2028, a time when money has been completely digitised and people maintain their finances with a smart contract called 'The Lantern Wallet'. When people worldwide suddenly find themselves unable to access their cryptocurrency due to a global hack, chaos ensues.
Players have to solve challenges, with themes such as information security and blockchain, to prevent a total financial crash. Through several stages, the players can ultimately help Interpol pinpoint the hacker's residence. Players can select the difficulty of the game by choosing between the various available roads to victory.
“Demand for digital talent has soared over the past few years. As a bank, we’ve invested in the future to remain relevant to this target group. That requires a distinctive approach,” says Maarten Bokhoven, ABN Amro's head of employer branding. “Innovation matters a great deal to us. ABN Amro's IT specialists deal with all kinds of substantive challenges and they have considerable social impact. We’ve designed The Lockdown to reflect all of these elements and more.”
The Lockdown was formally launched at a TNW conference where a blackout was staged in the Gashouder building, midway during the conference programme. The game's hacker, wearing a monkey mask, directly addressed the audience from big screens. Afterwards, a QR code was displayed on screen so that attendees could download the game and start playing.
The app is available for download on itunes and at Google Play.