Mastercard turns fraud protection into playful storytelling with Protected Monsters
A Southeast Asia campaign blends AI, KOL storytelling and shareable assets to make payments security relatable
Fraud protection rarely makes headlines. It is technical, largely invisible and only becomes relevant when something goes wrong. That is exactly the tension Mastercard is addressing with its new Protected Monsters campaign across Southeast Asia. Developed with Sticky Monster Lab and McCann Singapore, the initiative turns complex payments security into playful, shareable storytelling.
This article explores how Mastercard is reframing fraud education through character-driven content, AI-powered execution and multi-channel distribution, and what that means for marketers navigating trust, safety and brand relevance in 2026.
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Here’s a table of contents for quick access:
- Why Mastercard launched Protected Monsters to explain fraud protection
- How Sticky Monster Lab and AI power the campaign across Southeast Asia
- What marketers should learn from Mastercard’s approach to security storytelling
Patrecia Meliana
Why Mastercard launched Protected Monsters to explain fraud protection
Mastercard has teamed up with Sticky Monster Lab to bring its behind-the-scenes security capabilities into the spotlight through a cast of minimalist, relatable “monsters.” These characters represent the everyday anxieties and quirks that can make people susceptible to fraud, from shopping and dining out to scrolling on their phones.
Rather than explaining fraud in technical terms, Protected Monsters uses humour and simplicity to make security tangible. The idea is straightforward: risks can appear in familiar situations, but Mastercard’s multi-layered protection is always working in the background.
Dheeraj Raina, Senior Vice President, Head of Integrated Marketing and Communications, Southeast Asia, Mastercard, said the campaign aims to make protection feel friendly, intuitive and personal. By transforming real-life creators into AI-powered protected monsters, Mastercard is positioning its security infrastructure as something consumers can relate to, not just rely on.
The campaign follows Mastercard’s earlier 2025 regional push, which leaned into quiet storytelling and emotional resonance through short, human moments of uncertainty. Protected Monsters builds on that foundation, shifting from emotional realism to stylized, character-led storytelling.
How Sticky Monster Lab and AI power the campaign across Southeast Asia
Sticky Monster Lab is known for minimalist yet emotionally expressive characters that capture everyday human behaviour. For Mastercard, those characters become metaphors for vulnerability in daily transactions.
The campaign blends AI-powered motion capture, KOL-led storytelling and shareable digital assets. KOLs transform into protected monsters and share relatable fraud close calls, turning abstract security threats into personal, social-first narratives.
Beyond social platforms such as TikTok and Meta, the monsters appear in sticker packs, programmatic placements, in-game environments and out-of-home executions across malls and restaurants. This always-on presence reinforces a central message: fraud can happen anywhere, but protection is always on.
Dan Parmenter, Creative Director at McCann Singapore, noted that the monsters represent the part of all of us that can fall for fraud trickery. By turning those figures into protected versions of themselves, the campaign reframes anxiety into confidence with every Mastercard transaction.
For marketers, the execution is as important as the concept. This is not a single hero film or one-off activation. It is a distributed, multi-format ecosystem built for social sharing, regional scale and contextual relevance.
What marketers should learn from Mastercard's approach to security storytelling
Security and fraud prevention are often treated as compliance topics rather than brand assets. Mastercard is doing the opposite. It is turning safety into a creative platform.
Here are three practical takeaways for marketers:
- Make invisible value visible
Many fintech and martech brands operate complex infrastructure in the background. Instead of listing features, Mastercard visualizes protection through characters and scenarios. Marketers can apply the same thinking to AI moderation, fraud detection or data security capabilities that customers rarely see but deeply value.
- Translate technical trust into cultural language
Fraud protection could have been explained with statistics and technical diagrams. Instead, Mastercard uses humour, KOLs and stickers. For brands operating in AI marketing tools or payments infrastructure, this is a reminder that trust is emotional before it is technical.
- Build multi-channel consistency around one core idea
The Protected Monsters show up in social, programmatic, in-game and OOH placements. The creative device remains consistent while formats change. For regional campaigns, especially in Southeast Asia, this approach helps balance local relevance with brand cohesion.
Marketers navigating platform risk and consumer skepticism can also look at how Mastercard reinforces reassurance without leaning on fear. The campaign acknowledges risk but focuses on confidence and everyday joy.
Fraud may be invisible, but brand trust is not. With Protected Monsters, Mastercard shows that even complex, technical topics like payments security can be reframed into relatable, shareable stories.
For marketers, the bigger lesson is clear: safety and infrastructure are not just operational pillars. They can be powerful creative territories.
