Founded in the UK in 2011, Wise (formerly TransferWise) has grown rapidly to become one of the leading cross-border payment solutions providers globally, with over 10 million active customers, in 170 countries, doing transfers in over 40 currencies. With a product portfolio that includes debit and credit cards, Wise makes it cheaper and easier to send, spend and receive money overseas.

In 2020, Wise launched their debit card in Japan and needed a distinctive and engaging campaign that would build consideration and customer acquisition for the brand. We were brought in to support the Wise teams in Japan, Singapore and the UK in developing the campaign strategy, messaging and visual execution.

The campaign came with a big challenge – it had to appeal to two distinct audiences: Japanese people with international payment needs as well as foreigners living in the country. This meant developing a campaign in two languages that addressed the very different needs and perceptions between these audiences, while still providing a consistent look and feel. 

We developed a Japan local-market proposition for the brand as well as a creative concept that addressed the frustrations and opacity of traditional financial services providers in the country. These included the slow move to digitization, the volume of paper-only communications and the need for traditional hanko stamps.

Our goal was to show these challenges in a form that was visually and emotionally engaging to the target audiences and how Wise can solve them.

The creative concept took the form of a financial monster, a symbol familiar to a country with a vibrant ‘Kaiju’ culture and provided the basis for a whole ecosystem of collateral and touchpoint design.

From full animated commercials, to social media posts, ad banners and placed media, we developed a wide range of assets and collateral, in both Japanese and English. This drew huge appeal from the local Japanese audience as well as the large foreign community in the country interested in lowering the costs of their money transfers. 

Check out the commercial in Japanese below!