Thai Bank Switches From Pure Creativity to Pop Culture

Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank (KBank) has launched a new campaign conceptualised by creative partners GreyNJ United Bangkok, featuring the bank’s celebrity endorsers K-pop girl group Blackpink.

The campaign called“KBank Empowers Your Belief”, includes a two-minute video music video, and is aimed at a Gen Z audience. Judging by the reaction so far, it has been a massive hit; the two-minute spot has already racked up over 18.6m views on YouTube since it was posted on Nov 12 with #KBankxBLACKPINK as the top trending hashtag on Twitter on the first day of the campaign’s launch.

Since Q117, KBank has been the sixth-largest spender for the financial services category in Thailand’s sponsorship market (6.1% share, almost US$3.2m, in the last 3 years to date). While almost a third of its spend (~US$1m) during this timeframe has come from backing the broadcast of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Thailand’s free-to-air television network Channel 5, it has amassed a string of golf and marathon related sponsorships ranging up to US$200k+, including endorsement deals with the Jutanugarn sisters who are ply their golfing trade on the LPGA circuit.

Working alongside GreyNJ United Bangkok, KBank has been also active in the branded content landscape with award-winning quirky shorts such as “Friendshit” and “Faceoff”, the former seeing an investment of about US$560k. That said its latest move with Blackpink is a creative shift from niche content into the world of major celebrity endorsement, and signals an ambitious desire to move beyond pure creativity by using pop culture to connect and engage with younger audiences.