Pumpui + Yell Bangkok launch Nolingual Font to break through Thai-Korean food market clutter

In Thailand’s food market, Korean-inspired products have become increasingly common, making it difficult for brands to stand out. To try and cut through the clutter, Pumpui has teamed up with Yell Bangkok to create “Nolingual Font,” a custom typeface that appears Korean at first glance but can only be read by Thai audiences.

Korean culture has firmly entered the Thai mainstream, influencing everything from entertainment to food. As Korean-inspired design and visuals proliferate across products and marketing, many offerings now look similar, making differentiation a growing challenge for brands.

For the launch of its Korean-style fried baby clams, Pumpui and Yell Bangkok chose to address this challenge by turning typography into the core execution of the campaign.

This led to the creation of Nolingual Font, a custom typeface designed to sit between two cultures. The typeface was developed by deconstructing Hangul into its grid system and basic shapes, then using these principles to reconstruct Thai letters with Korean-inspired curves and strokes. At first glance, it appears to be Hangul, but on closer inspection, it reveals itself as Thai, encouraging audiences to stop, look again and question what they were seeing.

Nolingual Font became the hero across the campaign. Pumpui’s Facebook page was refreshed with banners and posts written in the new typeface, sparking curiosity and conversation. The idea was also extended offline through T-shirts worn by influencers in public spaces, transforming the font into a live guessing game.

Translation: “If you can read this, you’re not Korean, but you get the Korean vibe, right?”

The campaign went beyond simply creating awareness for the product. Nolingual Font sparked strong organic conversation around the launch, as audiences willingly engaged with the brand message by questioning and trying to read the typography across social media and offline touchpoints. This demonstrated how a simple shift in execution can cut through category sameness and invite people to stop and look again.

Audiences engaged by trying to read and interact with the typography across both social platforms and real-world touchpoints.