£100m is lost to fraud and scams in the UK every year.

The brief was to ensure LoL players/ fans perceive Santander as a bank that takes ownership of the fraud and scams issue and gives protection and oversight.

Objectives: Drive awareness of fraud and scams capability and improve perception of Santander

The secret to success in gaming is novel but respectful use of IP, but how can a boring old high street bank build meaning and relevance with this hyper-digital, culturally savvy Gen Z audience? This was the broad comms challenge before us.

Step in, The Ward, aka Flamey.

Wards in League of Legends provide players oversight, wisdom and ultimately protection from the dark forces present in the game. What a powerful representative of a bank’s role in game form! Santander’s credible and legitimate fight against Fraud & Scams has a proxy in an iconic game. Better yet, no other advertiser has made use of the Ward IP in this fashion.

Reputations and revenues are at stake when it comes to Fraud & Scams - Santander loses circa £100m annually off the bottom line.

Gamers are particularly prone; more than 60% of gamers identify as victims of fraud or identity theft.

Yet despite its provenance, it’s hardly the sexiest material for Marcomms teams to get their teeth stuck into, especially in light of research that suggests Gen Z care far less than their older counterparts about how their personal data is used online.

Riot Games (maker of League of Legends) were themselves victims of a sophisticated and wide-reaching hack in early 2023 right at the outset of our partnership.

In short, a real issue in society but especially within gaming communities, exacerbated by a prevailing attitude of ‘it’ll never happen to me’ amongst our younger target bankers.

The production was deeply challenging as we wanted to use Riot's proprietary game engine to effectively tell a non-linear story. However, our knowledge of the IP and subtle brand integrations led to a seamless output. The final ambition to associate Santander with a beloved icon of the game was realised.

That said, the commercial and creative complications and politics were extremely difficult to manage. We are very proud of the output given the climate in which it was produced.

Yes, it popped. The video and posters receiving more than 5m impressions, representing 4x ROI on the brand investment and driving best in class sentiment not just from gamers, but professional creators and industry insiders too.

Our plan was built around driving a high share of voice around a key calendar moment (The League of Legends European Finals) and September saw the best performing post of the year (65.2k) when significant members of the talent community commented and shared (Fortnite World Champions Endretta and Nyhrox). This, coupled with our supporting activity was a good proof of concept for anchoring core activities around ‘moments’.

Our content also outperformed our YT channel benchmark and from mid-July to the end of September, our contribution helped to raise traffic to our corporate Fraud & Scams page by 27% vs standard for 2023.

“Definitely the most ambitious LEC partner content I’ve seen.”

Former Riot Games Exec

“Really