Delivering a powerful digital brand campaign that achieved significant cut-through across APAC.

Verification platform Sumsub wanted to raise awareness and generate interest in its services, namely protection against online fraud. Crowd’s creative solution was ‘The Beast’, a bold integrated campaign developed by our Creative Strategy Team and amplified through multi-channel media execution. The Beast achieved significant breakthroughs, resonating with the target audience of key decision-makers in medium to large-scale enterprises in the APAC region. Three humorous and impactful brand videos were supported by a multi-channel advertising strategy to achieve the desired objectives of brand awareness and increased revenue for Sumsub.

The campaign needed to reach relevant decision-makers across the fintech, trading, gaming, and crypto industries in key APAC markets, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Australia. This required precise audience segmentation supported by Crowd’s B2B marketing specialists in Dubai. The team identified the primary target group of decision-makers as typically male with an average age of 50, while a secondary group of influencers involved in the decision-making process had an average age of 35.

Using rich media with three different experiences, Crowd conducted studies to determine if the target audiences had previously been exposed, or fallen victim, to fraudulent activity. The results showed 83.8% had previously faced digital threats and 79.8% had been affected by a security breach. Engaged users were later re-marketed with the main campaign assets, which each addressed a specific problem: identity theft, business verification, and fraudulent transactions.

Crowd devised the concept of ‘The Beast’ which takes the form of a mischievous gorilla. The Beast represents online fraud and the constant threat of an unexpected and chaotic ‘attack’ on an unprotected user. This disruptive and distinctive concept tapped into the fears of the audience with humour and originality, breaking from the typical style of fraud protection ads.

The campaign’s hero assets were three humorous videos, meticulously storyboarded by Crowd. A two-day shoot took place in Singapore in collaboration with a local director, production house, talent and stylists, and featured a custom-built gorilla suit for maximum impact. The campaign was supported by paid social and search campaigns across Meta, LinkedIn and Google led by Crowd’s Paid Media team in the UAE.