Adequa Wins Bronze at the '2026 Busan International Marketing and Advertising Awards'

FSN's subsidiary, Adequa Interactive, won the 'Bronze' award at the '2026 Busan International Marketing and Advertising Awards'.

President Paid Leave Sending Project. Adequa

According to Adequa on September 1, the winning entry was the 'Project to Grant Paid Leave to the CEO', a brand campaign for 'CEO Banking' planned and executed in collaboration with K Bank. The campaign was designed in response to the reality faced by Korean small business owners, who are able to take only 1.9 days off per month on average due to concerns over declining sales. Instead of simply exposing a financial product, the project focused on the fundamental question: "How can we truly help small business owners?" As a result, they launched a bold paid leave support project to solve both the most urgent needs of business owners: rest and the anxiety over lost sales.

A public call for stories brought in 5,788 heartfelt submissions from all across the country. Those who needed rest most urgently were selected to receive paid leave, with compensation for lost income to cover the sales gap during their vacation. Notably, the campaign turned the closed stores—left empty while the owners were away—into branding media, an unconventional and creative approach.

Vacation notices, carrying the owners' personal stories and the brand message, were installed on the storefronts, transforming these closed shops into warm public relations touchpoints. Through this, and by providing the owners with fair vacation funding, the financial brand introduced a new model of mutual growth with self-employed businesses. This offline experience spread digitally through current affairs interview programs, influencer collaborative content, and campaign sketch videos across multiple channels, driving widespread public discourse and empathy around the 'right to rest' for small business owners.

Content related to the campaign surpassed 18 million cumulative views, attracted an overwhelmingly positive response with more than 97% favorable comments, and was featured in about 150 media reports, proving the genuine value and purpose of the brand. Such public resonance and enthusiasm represent a meaningful outcome, showing that K Bank's authentic brand activities are being recognized externally as well.

Jeong Geon-Young, CEO of Adequa, stated, “K Bank’s Project to Grant Paid Leave to the CEO is meaningful because it went beyond promoting financial services; it provided genuine rest to business owners who previously couldn’t relax due to worries over sales, while also fostering warm empathy across society. As the authentic message of mutual growth received high recognition on the global stage, we will continue to present creative work that brings positive change to the world and drives business growth for our clients.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.