The Campaign

To launch the new PruCancerX plan, we decided to show young Malaysians how helpful superstition was in covering them from cancer, i.e. not at all. So, we created a fake brand that promoted superstition and in doing so, made it the enemy. Under the label ‘Unsuay’ (anti-bad-luck), we designed a touch-friendly block of wood, a ‘Choi’ pin and a bad luck swatter. We promoted the Unsuay collection like real items on social media pages. Then, we flipped the script, revealing the true message: superstition can’t cover you. PRUcancer X is the only real cover from cancer.

Creative Execution

We created a fictitious, sleek lifestyle brand on social media called Unsuay that they could ‘buy’. Unsuay released a collection of products that claimed to undo the ‘suayness’ (bad luck) of cancer. We created two brand pages on social media and pushed out three realistic online shopping ads each featuring an Unsuay product. Further, we produced three YouTube bumper ads showcasing our Unsuay products in all their glory. We also developed two brand films introducing the founder of Unsuay and released a series of GIF and carousel ads on social media to build hype and talkability. Clicking these ads led audiences to landing pages revealing that PruCancerX, not superstition, could effectively provide the coverage.

Our unconventional approach in this campaign caught media attention in Malaysia. The Unsuay products received 80% positive sentiment on social media. We received requests to buy the Unsuay products. The brilliant plot twists in the “making-of product” video clips captured the attention of Malaysians, peaking at 6.1 million views with a 70% completion rate. And when we revealed that Prudential is behind this campaign, we obtained an incredible 47% engagement rate with our social media ads. Our campaign has appeared in more than 10 publications within the first week of launch and this secured us approximately RM190,515 worth of earned PR value.

The testimonials and anecdotes from cancer survivors and physicians that we gathered showed that cancer remains a taboo topic among the young and old. Whenever the topic came up, people would resort to saying “touchwood!” and “choi!”, a superstitious reflex to unjinx the situation, which also shuts down the conversation. Insurance is only a viable consideration if our target audience is willing to address the elephant in the room - the need for real coverage in the event of being diagnosed with cancer. Superstitions can’t cover you, but insurance can, and that’s the message we want to send, in a light-hearted, hyper-localised way that speaks the audience’s lingo. The strategy is to open the conversation with a laugh before introducing them to real coverage with PrucancerX. We took a strategic risk with this irreverent style, but we’ve concluded that cancer is a serious topic that requires some serious attention.