DDB Group Hong Kong and Hang Seng Bank edit Cantopop songs to combat cybercrime

Hang Seng Bank has launched a campaign in an effort to help customers identify increasingly sophisticated financial scams. Created by DDB Group Hong Kong, the campaign uses familiar Cantopop songs with reworked lyrics, in hope of demystifying fraud for customers with helpful information.

Cybercrime in financial services in Hong Kong is ever-evolving and increasing. According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, fraud cases in Hong Kong were up 42.6% in 2023 compared to the previous year, and involved more than 9 billion Hong Kong dollars. As Hong Kong’s largest bank, Hang Seng Bank are investing in better educating people, believing greater fraud-awareness and understanding is the best prevention strategy.

In order to ensure the bank’s important anti-fraud messages are heard far and wide, the song lineup from artists Tonick and Per Se, Serrini and Nancy Sit, appeals to various demographics, hoping to cover much of Hang Seng’s diverse customer base. The transcreation of each of the song lyrics contains information on various forms of fraud including how to identify scam calls, texts, online sellers and social accounts. While the bank regularly features Cantopop artists in their marketing campaigns, this is the first time to have creatively incorporated financial messages into the artist’s melodies.

The songs and music videos have been circulating the past couple of weeks and the campaign culminated this past weekend with live performances at an Hang Seng Bank Anti-Fraud Music Concert attracting hundreds of people. The free concert to promote public awareness of fraud prevention was held in Central Market, in partnership with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and featured all the singers performing their anti-fraud song renditions, among many other hits.

Jordan Cheung, Chief Marketing Officer at Hang Seng Bank, said: “Scams are a financial crime that can happen to anyone and so we really want our customers to know what to look out for. At the same time, we understand cybersecurity is not something everyone is interested in. We hope creating easily digestible information in the form of well-loved Cantopop songs will be an effective way to get some important messages across to help protect our customers.”

Koman Ko, Managing Partner at DDB Group Hong Kong, added: “We really enjoyed the challenge of decoding fraud information and creating more understandable messages in the form of catchy lyrics. We hope the outcome is entertaining, and most importantly arms customers with information to protect themselves from being scammed.”

The music videos are all accessible now on YouTube, and the campaign is being promoted on social media.