Content Champions: Bank Negara Malaysia

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is the central bank of Malaysia, established on 26 January 1959 and governed by the Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009. Its primary role is to maintain monetary and financial stability, providing a foundation for sustainable economic growth. The bank sets monetary policy, oversees the resilience of the financial system, develops financial markets, and ensures the efficiency and security of national payment infrastructure.

In addition, Bank Negara Malaysia drives financial inclusion to ensure all segments of society can access financial services. It also serves as banker and adviser to the government, managing public debt, international reserves, and issuing the national currency, the Malaysian ringgit.

Content Champions is a segment during A+M's Content360 conference in Malaysia in which we highlight brands who have made significant impact in the content marketing space through their campaigns. This campaign was shortlisted for Marketing Excellence Awards 2025 and chosen for coverage by the editorial team at A+M. 

Brand: Bank Negara Malaysia
Campaign: Jangan scam hatiku

Challenge

In today’s crowded social media landscape, even urgent messages can get lost in the scroll. Financial scam awareness, while critical, has traditionally been delivered through fact-heavy PSAs which are dry, forgettable, and easily ignored.

Content overload, competing distractions, and public apathy have further weakened their impact, particularly among older Malaysians, who are both the most vulnerable to scams and the least responsive to conventional digital formats.

BNM faced a stark paradox: the people who most needed scam education were actively tuning out. In 2024 alone, Malaysians lost RM 53.9 billion to financial scams. Yet despite the availability of information, it wasn’t sticking. Tips were forgotten at the moment they mattered, because the messages lacked resonance, memorability, and emotional connection.

The insight was clear: this wasn’t a distribution problem, rather, it was a relevance problem. BNM needed to flip the narrative, transforming scam prevention from a dry advisory into content people actually wanted to watch. The challenge was ambitious - to craft a campaign that could compete with the dramas and stories audiences consumed daily.

This meant content that felt personal, familiar, and binge-worthy. Scam awareness had to stop being a PSA; it had to become a plotline, something Malaysians would talk about at family dinners, share on WhatsApp, and remember when it mattered most.

Strategy

BNM reimagined scam education by venturing into a storytelling format no financial regulator had explored before - a serialised drama. The campaign, "Jangan scam hatiku", was designed not to warn, but to immerse audiences in the emotional consequences of scams. It drew on narrative tropes familiar to older Malaysians such as romance, betrayal, family conflict, and emotional twists, and blended them seamlessly with real-life scam scenarios.

Each of the three episodes focused on a specific scam type: an APK scam showing how an innocent download could lead to financial loss, a phone scam portraying a manipulative impersonator exploiting family trust, and an investment scam illustrating false promises, peer pressure, and emotional manipulation.

Rather than interrupting the story with advice, the educational lessons were lived through the characters’ experiences. Each episode ended with a concise recap to reinforce key scam prevention takeaways, acting as cognitive anchors to ensure the lessons were memorable and actionable. Beyond the episodic drama, the campaign expanded into a multi-platform content ecosystem.

Character trailers humanised the story and built anticipation, behind-the-scenes reels encouraged rewatching, Instagram carousels simplified key scam tips, short-form reels highlighted dramatic moments for viral sharing, and WhatsApp-friendly cutdowns enabled peer-to-peer distribution.

Execution

"Jangan scam hatiku" was launched like a primetime drama, not a conventional PSA, following a three-phase timeline of tease, release, and reinforce, mirroring the entertainment industry’s approach to episodic storytelling.

During the tease phase, trailers, teasers, and character introductions were shared on Facebook and Instagram, using melodramatic cues and high emotional stakes to draw attention. WhatsApp messages seeded teaser images within private groups, sparking early buzz and word-of-mouth among target communities.

In the release phase, full episodes premiered weekly on Facebook and YouTube, timed to coincide with peak engagement during the Merdeka season. Each episode ended on an emotionally charged cliffhanger, naturally building anticipation for the next installment.

The reinforce phase extended the campaign’s impact beyond episodic viewing. Content was repurposed into simplified graphics summarising each episode’s scam scenario and prevention tips, while digital-out-of-home billboards amplified visibility in public spaces, cementing "Jangan scam hatiku" as a household name.

The channel strategy was insight-driven, tailored to audience behaviours. For example, Facebook captured older Malaysians who revisit drama replays, YouTube provided long-form binge potential, Instagram showcased emotional clips and reactions and X (formerly Twitter) facilitated real-time chatter.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp acted as the backbone for peer-to-peer credibility. From scripting and casting to media planning and delivery, every element was designed to create content that was not only must-watch entertainment but also delivered critical educational value in a relatable, memorable way.

Check out the other winners here.