Welcome to Mediaweek’s ongoing editorial series to uncover campaigns from completely different markets, as nominated by global creative leaders. These are campaigns that are brilliant and popular – but completely outside of our bubble in Australia.
This edition’s contributing leaders are Assam Khalid (Founder, ECD and CSO, Vexology UAE) and Psembi Kinstan (ECD DDB, Melbourne).
Assam: The first piece I want to share is a campaign done a couple of years ago. There is some context required (and no subtitles), so let me explain why it’s great.
Pakistan saw a drastic rise in digital banking post the COVID lockdowns, and with this, we also saw a drastic rise in online banking fraud. Fraudsters would prey on victims by pretending to be someone either from their bank or the police. They were particularly crafty, as they would use computer software to mimic different “official” phone numbers which made the calls appear legitimate.
Every bank was running anti-fraud campaigns, but with little effect. Easypaisa, a mobile-only digital bank, was facing the same issue, but as Easypaisa didn’t have branches, they received a comparatively larger downturn in their perception.
The brilliance of the campaign lay in the brand being able to solve all these challenges with just one word. A word that doesn’t exist in the dictionary. A word that they created. PinChor! (Pin = the security pin to access the account and chor = thief.) PinChor made it absolutely clear what they were trying to steal and what needed to be protected: your five-digit pin.
Why was the campaign famous here? Well, the word PinChor is particularly memorable as it sounds very similar to the most-used curse word in the country PhainChod (which translates to sister f*cker).
This is a curse word that was often used in the very situation of being defrauded of money. So the newly-created PinChor not only helped people identify fraud immediately when fraudsters would ask for their pin, but also shifted the anger and blame off Easypaisa and towards the perpetrators.
Psembi: A whole campaign that comes from the most common curse word in the country – that really sounds like something I would expect from Australia, not Pakistan. The wordplay is great. The design of the five ‘i’’s to represent the pin code is clever too, and it’s cheesy and catchy and all gloriously likeable.
Assam: The second campaign I’d like to share is one from the UAE for Etihad Airways. Being the partner for Tom Cruise’s movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Etihad Airways wanted to announce this news. It did so in the most bold and Mission Impossible way possible. One that Tom Cruise himself approved!
Psembi: Feels like a dream sponsorship brief. Whilst Mission Impossible makes it completely relevant, throwing things out of planes has made for some pretty great ads over the years. The original Honda skydive was the first ever live advert on British television, and it still holds up.
And in Australia, there’s a very famous piss-take on the trope of skydivers at sporting events too. Always worth another watch too!
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About Assam:
Assam is the founder and creative and strategic Planner at Vexology UAE. Ranked as the #1 strategic planning director in MENA and Pakistan, and the #3 strategic planning director in the world by The Big Won Report.
About Psembi:
Psembi grew up on a crocodile farm in the remote Australian outback. Many years later, he became the youngest creative director at BBH London and ran Audi, BBH’s foundation account. He’s now the group ECD at DDB Melbourne and has grown the team from just under 30 to nearly 100. His creative awards include a BAFTA, amongst 200 others.