FxPesa Challenges Kenyan Traders to Join the Forex Revolution
FxPesa launched "Are You One of Us?" in October 2019 as a market-entry film campaign in Kenya, created by Brand Immersion LLP, designed to challenge professionals and aspiring traders to identify themselves as part of a new generation of forex market participants on a regulated retail platform.
The campaign marks FxPesa's formal introduction to the Kenyan public, arriving several months after EGM Securities — the Kenyan subsidiary of Equiti Group — announced the platform in April 2019, per fxpesa.com, with an operational launch in early May 2019. In the Kenyan market, where the regulatory environment for retail forex trading was still maturing, the campaign's arrival represented a calculated effort to establish brand identity before awareness could be claimed by competitors. The creative challenge facing Brand Immersion LLP was to distil a technically complex financial product into an emotionally resonant invitation without alienating either seasoned traders or curious newcomers.
The campaign deploys a direct, inclusive question — "Are you one of us?" — as both its title and its central mechanism of engagement. Rather than explaining the mechanics of foreign exchange trading at length, the film invites the audience into a sense of belonging. In Kenya, where financial aspiration and community identity are deeply intertwined, this framing is strategically sound. The single film asset, produced by Enos Olik Productions, serves as FxPesa's foundational creative statement in the market: authoritative, accessible, and oriented toward growth. The Clapboard Score for this campaign stands at 57 out of 100, reflecting solid strategic intent and production discipline, tempered by the modest reach typical of a launch-phase effort in a nascent retail forex category.
EGM Securities became Kenya's first online non-dealing forex broker after receiving a Capital Markets Authority licence in 2018, according to egmsecurities.com. That regulatory milestone gave FxPesa a legitimacy advantage that the "Are You One of Us?" campaign was built to amplify. Launching a forex trading platform in Kenya required more than a product announcement — it demanded a statement of intent that could distinguish the brand from the offshore and unregulated brokers that had historically dominated the space.
The scale of that challenge is visible in the competitive context. A 2016 estimate referenced by the Capital Markets Authority of Kenya indicated that more than 50,000 Kenyan traders were using offshore regulated and unregulated brokers, per Cma Or Ke. That figure points to a market with genuine appetite but fragmented loyalty — exactly the conditions under which a well-positioned, locally licensed entrant can win disproportionate share. FxPesa's primary competitive tension was not with other Kenyan-licensed platforms but with offshore operators such as established global brokers who had already built informal credibility with Kenyan retail traders.
Brand Immersion LLP's strategic response was to bypass product comparison entirely and compete on identity. By asking "Are you one of us?", the campaign positions FxPesa not as a service to be evaluated but as a community to be joined. In the Kenyan professional services and banking and finance landscape, where trust is a primary purchase driver, this approach converts the brand's regulatory standing into social currency. The campaign targets professionals and aspiring traders — a segment for whom belonging to a credible, forward-thinking platform carries genuine personal and professional meaning. The strategic logic is tight: lead with aspiration, follow with legitimacy.
Brand Immersion LLP produced the campaign as a single film asset, a format that demands economy of expression and rewards strong visual and narrative discipline. The creative team brought together Managing Partner Ken Kinya and Creative Partner Mykal Kiruthi in senior leadership roles, with Art Directors Keith Simiyu and Nikita Martine guiding the visual language and copywriter Olesia Lynn responsible for the verbal precision that makes the campaign's central question land. Production was executed by Enos Olik Productions, ensuring a finished film that meets the quality standards expected in the professional services and banking and finance category.
The visual storytelling approach, as shaped by Simiyu and Martine, leans into the empowering and dynamic register that characterises the most effective financial services advertising. The film avoids the static, cautionary tone that often accompanies forex trading communications — a deliberate choice that reflects the brand's positioning as an accessible, growth-oriented platform rather than a warning-heavy institution. In the Kenyan market, where aspirational visual language resonates strongly with the urban professional audience FxPesa is targeting, this tonal decision is commercially coherent.
The campaign also carries a tribute to Margaret Obondo, the late Marketing Manager at EGM Securities, adding an emotional layer that gives the work unusual depth for a market-entry film. This dedication is not incidental — it signals that FxPesa and EGM Securities understand that Kenyan audiences respond to human connection and institutional sincerity. Monica Wanjiku also appears in the campaign's creative credits. The combination of polished production, considered visual direction, and a moment of genuine human acknowledgement produces a film that functions simultaneously as brand advertising and community statement — a balance that is difficult to achieve and, when achieved, memorable.
The campaign recorded 1,150 views, four likes, and no comments across its documented online presence. These figures reflect the reality of a market-entry campaign operating in a nascent retail forex category in Kenya, where the audience for regulated online trading was still forming in 2019. They do not diminish the campaign's structural effectiveness, but they do contextualise its reach as foundational rather than viral.
To understand what the campaign was working against, the global picture is instructive. Global foreign-exchange turnover reached $6.6 trillion per day in April 2019, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Retail-driven FX transactions represented a smaller portion of that total — and in a market like Kenya, where more than 50,000 traders were estimated to be using offshore platforms as of 2016 per cma.or.ke, the addressable audience for a locally licensed entrant was real but required patient cultivation. FxPesa's campaign was not designed to convert at scale immediately; it was designed to plant a flag.
Structurally, the film succeeds in the ways that matter most for a market-entry asset. It establishes a distinctive brand voice, creates an emotional hook through the dedication to Margaret Obondo, and deploys a campaign line — "Are you one of us?" — that has genuine longevity as a platform for ongoing brand communications. In the Kenyan banking and finance sector, where brand familiarity is a prerequisite for product consideration, these structural qualities represent measurable long-term value even where short-term metrics are modest. The Clapboard Score of 57 out of 100 reflects precisely this balance: strategic coherence and creative integrity, with room for broader distribution and audience activation.
"Are You One of Us?" is FxPesa's market-entry film campaign, launched in Kenya in October 2019. Created by Brand Immersion LLP and produced by Enos Olik Productions, it uses a direct identity challenge to invite Kenyan professionals and aspiring traders to engage with the FxPesa forex trading platform.
Brand Immersion LLP created the campaign. The creative team was led by Managing Partner Ken Kinya and Creative Partner Mykal Kiruthi, with Art Directors Keith Simiyu and Nikita Martine, copywriter Olesia Lynn, and Monica Wanjiku also credited. Enos Olik Productions handled film production.
FxPesa is a retail forex trading platform operated by EGM Securities, the Kenyan subsidiary of Equiti Group. The platform was announced in April 2019 and launched operationally in early May 2019, per fxpesa.com. EGM Securities held a Capital Markets Authority licence, making it Kenya's first online non-dealing forex broker, according to egmsecurities.com.
The campaign carries a tribute to Margaret Obondo, the late Marketing Manager at EGM Securities, the company that operates FxPesa. This dedication adds an emotional dimension to the market-entry film, deepening its resonance with Kenyan audiences and signalling institutional sincerity on the part of the brand.
The FxPesa "Are You One of Us?" campaign received a Clapboard Score of 57 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strategic coherence and production discipline as a market-entry film in Kenya's retail forex category, balanced against the modest online reach of 1,150 views recorded at the time of evaluation.
FxPesa entered a Kenyan market where, as of 2016, more than 50,000 traders were estimated to be using offshore brokers, per cma.or.ke. The campaign positioned FxPesa — a locally licensed, regulated platform — as a credible alternative by leading with community identity rather than product comparison, a strategically sound approach in Kenya's financial services sector.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
