2026 Winner

Western Union needed to drive both digital adoption and retail usage among multicultural remittance senders in Toronto, a highly competitive market where trust, speed and cultural familiarity shape behaviour. Reaching South Asian, Filipino and Jamaican remittance senders meant navigating three distinct sets of behaviours, expectations and cultural cues, all without losing a coherent brand idea. The idea, “Count on us when they count on you,” anchored the work in a shared emotional truth – family responsibility – expressed through culturally distinct stories, from birthdays to medical needs to education. Three 30-second videos, developed in Hindi, Tagalog and Patois alongside English, reflected authentic family dynamics unique to each audience, while being optimized for platform use across Meta, YouTube, TikTok and programmatic placements in vertical, square and horizontal formats. Made for mobile-first consumption with subtitles and culturally relevant sound design, the campaign balanced consistency with nuance, driving 19M impressions, more than 500,000 engagements and 2.5M video views, alongside measurable increases in transaction volume and improved movement between retail and digital channels.

Credits

Hassan Iqbal
Erik dela Cruz
Eddie Cristobal
Shaharyar Irfan
Ulyssis Enrico
Gaurav Sharma
Kirna Iftakhar