EPS borrows from the movies for PPS

A new television commercial shot in faux-cinematic tones and featuring mobsters on a mission to 'Kill Bills' spearheads the EPS Company's campaign to rejuvenate its PPS brand.

The aim of the campaign is to re-establish PPS as the definitive bills payment option and engage today's youth, said Michael Chu, general manager of Contract Advertising, the creative agency that worked on the campaign.

PPS is a phone and online bill payment solution that allows customers to settle bills anytime and anywhere. The brand is owned by EPS Company, a consortium of 22 major banks in Hong Kong that seeks to provide greater convenience for customers by facilitating electronic funds transfers.

Chu said that while customer retention is not a problem for PPS, the service's userbase is ageing, so Contract was striving to make the brand more relevant to today's new bill-payers.

People felt that bill payment, especially for the youngsters, was very much a back-of-mind activity," he said.

The television commercial features a mobster and his henchmen, acting on their boss's order to 'Kill Bills', racing through Hong Kong abducting men named Bill. Following the frantic chase, the mobster proudly presents the boss with his spoils and asks which Bill he would like killed first, only for the boss to respond angrily that he was actually talking about his numerous utility and credit card bills.