Despite countless Public Service Announcements (PSAs) from various authorities, a whopping 71, 833 Malaysians fell victim to scams between January to March 2023. With scams being an ever-prevalent issue in Malaysia, these snooze-inducing PSAs rendered themselves invisible while scammers continued to elevate their game. Maybank needed to get Malaysians to pay attention in a way they never had before.

‘Macam yes’ is a Malaysian slang word for someone or something that tries very hard to convince you they are someone or something they are not. It also comes from the Malaysian term ‘Macam yes tapi bukan’ which translates to ‘seems like it is, but it isn’t.’ So Maybank’s hashtag #MacamYesMaybeNot translates to ‘If it looks like it is, maybe not’ and captures what Malaysians should do when faced with a scammer. By leveraging on celebrities and music genres Malaysians love, Malaysians are educated about scams through an original music piece that keeps them engaged and entertained.

Instead of just educating Malaysians, we entertained them. In a music video unlike any other, we featured scam versions of popular celebrities. Snoop Dodge, Rings, Jay Chiao and Blek Pink taught them how to spot various scams while singing along to an original, genre-bending soundtrack that drove home our message of staying aware. And to ignore whatever sounds or looks too good to be true, because it probably isn’t.

We wanted to reach as many Malaysians as possible so we featured a wide range of ‘stars’ from different music genres. Whenever each ‘star’ appeared on screen, the camera angles, language, dance moves, costumes and music genre changed along with them. As our ‘stars’ sang along to our original soundtrack, they also taught Malaysians how to spot and ignore various scams.

The music video was launched on YouTube, the ultimate source of music videos. It made headlines on sites such as Marketing Interactive and news portals such as New Straits Times Malaysia while successfully raising awareness in a way no other scam PSA had before.

• 137% increase in loss-free scams

• 8.84 million views

• 16.98 million media impressions

• More than 670 thousand Malaysians reached organically