Circus Grey's Knack for the "Brilliantly Obvious Solution"

Circus Grey’s second Cannes Lions Grand Prix in three years is a historic achievement not just for the agency, but also its home country of Peru.

“We are writing the history of Peruvian advertising in Cannes,” says José Luis Rivera y Piérola – AKA ‘Coyote’ – creative chairman and CEO of the WPP agency.

The campaign behind the win was ‘SOS POS’ for BCP, Peru's largest bank, in response to a growing wave of mobile phone theft. With more than 4,000 phones stolen every day in the country, victims were often left unable to contact their bank before criminals accessed their accounts and drained their savings. Circus Grey's solution transformed everyday payment terminals into emergency banking lifelines, allowing customers to instantly block their accounts by entering their ID number and PIN, removing the need for the very device that had just been stolen.


“For weeks, we immersed ourselves in the challenge, working closely with the bank's technology and security teams,” Coyote says. “Together, we kept asking one simple question: is there another device people can use to connect with the bank besides their mobile phone?”

The answer, clearly, was ‘yes’. “And even better, it's available almost everywhere,” Coyote adds, “from the smallest neighbourhood convenience store to the country's largest supermarket chains.

“The device [is] already trusted by millions of Peruvians every day to access financial services. We realised it could do much more than process payments – it could become an emergency access point to protect people's money when every second counts.”

Implementation of the project took several months. Circus Grey worked with a multidisciplinary team that involved compliance, lawyers, technology, cyber fraud and design. The group had to completely reprogramme the payment terminals to do the “exact opposite” of what they were originally designed to do – instead of authorising transactions, they would now be used to stop them.

“We developed a dedicated emergency block button on every POS terminal and trained thousands of merchants to assist any BCP customer whose phone had been stolen, turning neighbourhood stores into the fastest point of access to the bank when every second mattered,” Coyote says.

Success metrics for the campaign focused heavily on money protected, rather than common case study criteria like transactions or awareness. According to Circus Grey, ‘SOS POS’ protected more than $7.8 million USD in customer assets within its first four months, while reports of money theft fell by 48% and positive sentiment towards the bank increased by 83%.

“From the very beginning, our primary objective was to protect our customers' money,” Coyote says.

The campaign ultimately won seven Cannes Lions: one Grand Prix (in Creative Data), three Gold Lions, one Silver Lion, and two Bronze Lions.

“I believe what truly resonated with the Cannes Lions juries was the fact that we took a 50-year-old device and completely reimagined its purpose,” Coyote explains. “From Peru, we transformed the traditional POS terminal into something it had never been before – an emergency banking access point capable of protecting people from cyber fraud. It showed that a familiar and everyday device could be reinvented to move the global banking industry forward.

“What makes ‘SOS POS’ such a fascinating idea is that it feels like the solution has always been there – we just hadn't seen it.”

At Circus Grey, Coyote and the team like to call ideas like this ‘The Brilliantly Obvious Solution’. “The kind of idea,” he adds, “that once you see it, feels so simple and inevitable that you wonder why no one thought of it before.”

Designed as an open-source project, Circus Grey says ‘SOS POS’ has the potential to be rolled out across more than 1.3 million payment terminals nationwide.

“It's also remarkably easy to replicate anywhere in the world,” Coyote continues. “In fact, BCP is already working to expand ‘SOS POS’ beyond Peru, with plans to introduce it in countries such as Colombia, Chile, and Bolivia.”

Circus Grey's success also formed part of a standout year for Peru at Cannes Lions. The country claimed two Grands Prix in 2026, with McCann Lima also taking home top honours in Entertainment Lions for Sport with ‘The Thousand Sponsors of Muni’. This year's performance further cemented the country's reputation as one of Latin America's most consistent creative forces in recent years – a trend Coyote thinks is no coincidence.

“I believe that coming from a country like Peru, with so many challenges and limited resources, pushes us as creatives to constantly find solutions that are both disruptive and simple to implement,” he says. “You can see that reflected year after year in Peru's most celebrated work at Cannes Lions. These aren't ideas that rely on cutting-edge technology or complex systems. Instead, they replace sophistication with creativity, simplicity, and courage.

“When resources are limited, creativity becomes the greatest advantage. And I think that's exactly what has made Peruvian ideas stand out on the global stage.”

This kind of creativity permeates further than advertising. Coyote points to the country’s world-class gastronomy industry as an example.

“It's incredible to see how our culinary industry has evolved,” he says. “How it continues to innovate, reinvent itself, and inspire people all over the world. Peruvian cuisine has become one of the country's greatest ambassadors, proving that creativity can put a nation on the global map.

“My dream is that one day Peruvian advertising will be just as famous as Peruvian cuisine. That people around the world will look to Peru not only for extraordinary food, but also for extraordinary ideas.”

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