Award-Winning Social Media Agency in Singapore: How Our Wise Campaign Won MarCom Gold

The Creative For More won Gold at the 2026 MarCom Awards in the Social Media category for its Wise campaign, “Turning Everyday Money Moments Into a Local Reason to Switch.” The campaign turned Wise’s global “no hidden fees” message into creator-led social content for Singapore and Malaysia, running across Meta, TikTok, Google Display and The Trade Desk.

The MarCom Awards are an international creative competition administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). The Gold award recognises the first phase of our creative work for Wise, the global money transfer company, across Singapore and Malaysia.

We submit selected work to industry awards from time to time. An independent jury that judges the work on its own merits is a useful check on whether the thinking behind a campaign holds up outside the client relationship.

The campaign also reflects a pattern we see often in cross-border work. A strong global message rarely changes behaviour in a new market until it is rebuilt around local habits.

What Are the MarCom Awards?

The MarCom Awards are an international competition for marketing and communication work, administered and judged by AMCP. According to the MarCom Awards (2026), about 6,000 print and digital entries are submitted each year from dozens of countries.

Judges evaluate each entry on its own quality, creativity and resourcefulness rather than ranking it against other entries in the same category. There is no preset number of winners per category, and winners are recognised at Platinum, Gold and Honorable Mention levels.

The competition covers four main groups: Advertising and Marketing, Strategic Communications, Publications, and Web-Based work. Our entry was judged in the Social Media category.

What Was the Wise Campaign Brief?

Wise needed its global proposition of transparency and fair pricing to feel closer to everyday life in Singapore and Malaysia. Our brief was to shape a culturally grounded creative direction that turned “no hidden fees” into familiar moments and relatable humour.

The objectives were specific to how people in both markets handle money across borders:

• Break the habit of losing money to fees without noticing.
• Show a cleaner, fairer way to send and spend across borders.
• Grow the use of Wise for sending money, spending abroad and avoiding needless losses.
• Turn a global message into local concepts that are easy to grasp.
• Build trust without sounding like a bank.

The last objective shaped most of the creative decisions that followed. A fintech brand competing with banks gains little by adopting a bank’s tone, so the work needed to sound like the people it was speaking to.

Why Did a Global Message Need a Local Translation?

Case Study – Wise: Turning Everyday Money Moments Into a Local Reason to Switch

A global message about fees is accurate everywhere, but it only changes behaviour when people recognise their own situation in it. In Singapore and Malaysia, the everyday losses are small and easy to miss: bank fees, confusing exchange rates and charges that only appear after a transfer goes through.

The cost is real at a global level. According to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide (September 2025), sending remittances costs an average of 6.36 percent of the amount sent.

Social media is where these everyday moments can be reached at scale. According to DataReportal’s Digital 2026 reports, Singapore had 5.33 million social media user identities in October 2025, equal to 90.6 percent of the population, and Malaysia had 30.7 million, equal to 85.0 percent.

Reach on its own would not have closed the gap, and neither would translation. We explain the difference between translating a message and localising it in our guide to why translation isn’t enough for cross-border growth.

How Did the Campaign Turn Money Moments Into Social Content?

The campaign rested on three creative decisions: anchor fees in local behaviour, tell the story through real people, and keep one message consistent across every placement. Each decision addressed a different reason the global message wasn’t landing on its own.

The humour carried as much weight as the facts. A joke about bubble tea prices makes the same point as a fee comparison, but it reads as conversation rather than as a notice from a bank.

Which Channels and Formats Did the Campaign Run On?

The campaign ran on Meta, TikTok, Google Display and The Trade Desk. We built the creative as a system of static visuals, concept-driven carousels, animated explainers and creator videos, so Wise could place full-funnel assets into any paid channel.

Building a system rather than a set of one-off posts was a deliberate choice. Each format carried the same core idea at a different depth: a static visual for a quick read, a carousel for a comparison, an explainer for the mechanics and a creator video for proof.

We take the same approach in our social media marketing services for brands running paid and organic social across more than one market.

What Did the Campaign Achieve?

The campaign positioned Wise as the transparent alternative in markets long dominated by high-fee banks, with stronger traction across Singapore and Malaysia. The MarCom Gold adds independent recognition of the creative work from an international jury.

The creative system was also built to serve as the foundation for future campaigns. A system that can be extended keeps the message consistent from one campaign to the next, instead of rebuilding the creative direction each time.

The full objectives, approach and outcomes are in our Wise case study.

Do Marketing Awards Matter When Choosing a Social Media Agency?

Awards are one useful signal when choosing a social media agency, because they show that independent judges rated the work on its own merits. They work best alongside case studies, client references and a clear match between the agency’s experience and the markets a brand needs to reach.

A Gold award for a campaign in Singapore and Malaysia is most relevant to brands with a similar challenge. These are brands with a clear product truth that needs to feel local before it changes how people behave.

What Can Fintech and Cross-Border Brands Take From the Campaign?

Financial brands earn trust on social media when they explain money through situations people recognise, delivered by people they trust. Accurate claims about fees or rates are the starting point, but they rarely move behaviour until they’re tied to a moment the audience already lives through.

The same principle applies beyond fintech. Any brand bringing a global proposition into Singapore or Malaysia has to decide which local habits its message attaches to, and who is credible enough to deliver it.

Fintech Cross Border Payments

For regulated categories, the creative also has to stay accurate and consistent across every format. We cover how financial brands balance creative work and compliance in our fintech and cross-border payments marketing services.

If you’re managing social across Singapore and Malaysia and want a global message to feel local, we can help shape the creative direction from the first concept to the final placement. If your company is looking for a strategic marketing partner, the Creative For More team can help. Book a discovery call to explore how we can support your brand’s growth.