Oliver

Client: Barclaycard
Product: Fraud Fighter Tool
Title: Monkey Business
Media: Live Stunt, Online, Facebook
Country: UK
Date Of Campaign: April 2018

Background: Online fraud costs people in the UK £10 billion a year. Smart scams such as phishing, pagejacking and identity theft prey on the unwary. And there are a lot of them: 50% of people use the top 25 passwords, 71% will give their data away for ‘tangible’ benefits.To help combat this Barclaycard created the Fraud Fighter Tool, to educate people on what to look out for and how to protect themselves from the unscrupulous fraudsters.However, in an internet awash with funny cats and epic fails attracting the attention of online users to such a worthy – but pretty dry – destination requires something pretty special. Otherwise the Fraud Fighter Tool was doomed to just gather digital dust.So our challenge was to cut through, grab attention and drive people to the Barclaycard Fraud Fighter Tool, where they could learn the priceless lessons that could save them thousands.

Idea: Fraud can be a scary subject. And Barclaycard didn't want to scare people off. Also the brand has a playful tone of voice, so they needed an idea that could overcome the dark side of fraud and draw people in. Our starting point was the frauds themselves. They are so slick they’re almost impossible to spot. Leaving those scammed wishing “If only I’d spotted it sooner”.This became the inspiration for our idea:IF ONLY ALL FRAUD WAS THIS EASY TO SPOTFrom this we created content where the fraud was ridiculously easy to spot – and ridiculously playful and engaging.In a live hidden camera stunt, we took over a zoo for the day and replaced real gorillas with actors in VERY real gorilla suits. When the unsuspecting public saw these gorillas they were initially fooled, but then shocked when the gorillas revealed they were frauds in a very easy to spot way, by playing cricket, tango dancing or sharing a latte.The gorilla experience was turned into an online film, which was promoted directly to our customer base through Facebook, YouTube and other social channels, with a direct call to action to go and use the Fraud Fighter Tool to help protect yourself there and then.

Results: The campaign quickly became Barclaycards most successful piece of social content ever, with over 3.5 million YouTube views, and even more on Facebook, all within 2 weeks. It’s only been live a few weeks at time of entry, but already the campaign has driven an increase of 2100% of users of the Fraud Fighter Tool, meaning more people will spot fraud in time, even when it’s not as obvious as a gorilla hitting a six.