BSN hires a talking stray cat as its happiness officer — Kucing Happy wins Golden Kancil

BSN, Malaysia's savings bank, was perceived as old, traditional and 'laid back', with low brand recall among young Malaysians. For its 40th anniversary it wanted to connect with a younger audience — but as a bank it could not pretend to be cool.

The bank 'employs' Kucing Happy, a sarcastic talking stray cat, to grant fans' wishes in six weekly, wildly random webisodes — wishes sent in via #KucingHappy.

Fishermen Integrated created a fluffy grey cat who speaks Malay, 'hired' by BSN to make Malaysians happy. Fans sent wishes via #KucingHappy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and a microsite; the team wrote, shot, edited and added effects to one episode a week, basing scripts on whatever was trending and answering wishes with comic twists and celebrity cameos.

13,198 people submitted wishes in the first week and the six videos earned 515,831 organic views; the response was so strong that BSN rewrote the remaining episodes. Kucing Happy won four golds and the Golden Kancil Best in Show at the 2015 Kancil Awards, plus Kancil for Good, and BSN was named Advertiser of the Year.

By 2014, BSN (Bank Simpanan Nasional), Malaysia's savings bank, had a perception problem: customers saw it as old, traditional and 'laid back', and young Malaysians no longer felt they could resonate with it. For its 40th anniversary the bank wanted to change that without pretending to be something it was not.

After a first digital campaign, #RojakBuah, proved that content could move the brand — 2.8 million reach and more than 300,000 YouTube views — BSN and digital agency Fishermen Integrated launched Kucing Happy. A talking grey stray cat, voiced in Malay, was 'hired' by the bank as its happiness officer. Fans told the cat their wishes using #KucingHappy, and he granted them on video.

Each of the six webisodes was produced in seven days: the team wrote the wackiest script it could based on the conversations trending that week, then shot, edited and added visual effects. Wishes were answered with comic twists — one fan asked for a motorbike and received something else entirely — and rising celebrities such as Elizabeth Tan appeared, singing the Kucing Happy song.

The response stunned the bank: 13,198 people submitted wishes in the first week, the videos drew 515,831 organic views, and people refused to believe the spots came from a bank at all. The campaign won the Golden Kancil Best in Show plus four golds at the 2015 Kancil Awards, took Kancil for Good, and made BSN Advertiser of the Year.

Instead of telling young Malaysians the bank was youthful, BSN let a character say it — and the character was a stray cat, the internet's favourite animal.

The audience wrote the content: every wish submitted via the hashtag was a prompt, so engagement was built into the format itself.

Total commitment to randomness made the series feel like memes rather than ads — people did not believe a bank had made it.

The one-week production loop kept episodes in sync with whatever was trending, so each video felt current instead of pre-planned.

The cat gave a formal state bank a warm, funny personality without touching its promise of helping ordinary Malaysians.

A boring category can borrow credibility from an unexpected character: hand the brand's voice to a stray cat, commit fully to the randomness, and let the audience's wishes become the content.

BSN's head of strategic communications, Puspa Marina Omar, said the response was beyond the bank's imagination: after the first three episodes the team rewrote everything because the call to action was overwhelming. Management asked for a sequel, but the team deliberately paused the series to keep audiences curious and moved to Hari Raya content, including 'Pengacau Raya'. For Merdeka 2016, BSN brought the cat back with #KucingHappyPindah, asking fans where the cat should migrate to; its second episode drew more than 125,000 clicks.