[Edaily Reporter Park Jung-Soo ] Adquua Interactive (hereinafter “Adquua”), a subsidiary of KOSDAQ-listed company FSN(214270), announced on the 1st that it won a Bronze award in the “PR STARS” category at the “2026 Busan International Marketing & Advertising Festival (MAD STARS 2026).”
The Busan International Marketing & Advertising Festival is Asia’s largest international event for marketing, advertising, and digital content, and was successfully held from August 26 to 28 at Signiel Busan and throughout the Haeundae area. Adquua’s award-winning entry was the “Can’t Afford to Pause” brand campaign for Kbank’s “Business Owner Banking” service, which was planned and executed in collaboration with Kbank.
This project was conceived to address the reality faced by self-employed business owners in Korea, who, burdened by declining sales, take an average of only 1.9 days off per month. Moving beyond mere exposure of financial products, the campaign focused on the fundamental question, “How can we provide tangible help to business owners?” and introduced an innovative paid-vacation support project that simultaneously addresses their most pressing needs: “rest” and “concerns about sales.”
Through an open call for submissions, 5,788 heartfelt stories were received from across the country. The bank selected business owners who were most in need of rest and provided them with paid leave to compensate for lost income, thereby filling the revenue gap during their time off. In particular, the campaign stood out for its reverse-thinking strategy of utilizing empty storefronts—closed while business owners were on vacation—as branding platforms.
By displaying vacation notices on the storefronts—featuring the business owners’ heartfelt personal stories and brand messages—the closed shops were transformed into warm PR touchpoints. Through this initiative, the financial brand supported business owners with fair vacation pay, presenting a new model of mutual growth between financial institutions and the self-employed. These offline experiences spread into the digital space through multiple channels—including current affairs and cultural interviews, influencer collaboration content, and campaign recap videos—sparking a society-wide discourse on small business owners’ “right to rest” and generating widespread public empathy.
The project’s authenticity directly translated into an explosive public response and meaningful business results. Campaign-related content surpassed 18 million cumulative views, garnered an overwhelmingly positive response with over 97% positive comments, and generated approximately 150 media reports, proving the value of the brand’s authentic purpose. This public empathy and response is a significant achievement demonstrating that Kbank’s authentic brand activities have been recognized externally.
Jeong Geon-young, CEO of Adquua, stated, “Kbank’s ‘Paid Vacation for Business Owners’ project is meaningful not only because it went beyond simply promoting financial services, but also because it provided much-needed rest to business owners who couldn’t relax due to concerns about revenue and fostered a warm sense of social empathy.” “Since our sincere message of mutual growth has been highly praised on the global stage, we will continue to present creative work that brings about positive change in the world and helps our clients achieve business growth,” he added.