Carve Your Way
- Strategic Planning & Insights
- Creative Production
- Media Strategy, Planning & Buying
- Alli
We helped FXTM carve out a global edge in forex with a cinematic AI-powered campaign.
Challenge
Breaking Through the Noise in a High-Stakes Market
The forex market in the United Arab Emirates is fiercely competitive. Dozens of platforms compete for the attention of high-value investors with near-identical promises of faster trades, tighter spreads, and smarter tools.
FXTM needed to break through that noise to elevate its positioning, build genuine connection with investors who value confidence and credibility, and drive preference among everyone from ambitious first-time buyers to experienced traders. The team at PMG would help them do so via a premium, emotionally resonant brand campaign.
The campaign had to overcome significant constraints, though. The budget could not fund a traditional location shoot in Dubai, and the campaign had to go from concept to launch in just three months. Rather than scale back the creative ambition, we saw an opportunity to pioneer a new way of working - one that would merge authentic human craft with cutting-edge generative AI, not as a compromise, but as a creative catalyst.
Strategy
Turning Forex Mastery Into Motion
We sought to move away from the category’s functional, performance-led messaging and toward an emotionally-charged visual rooted in the feeling of trading itself. To do that, we needed a powerful metaphor that could convey the adrenaline of making quick decisions, the skill of reading shifting conditions, and the rush of getting it right.
After exploring architecture, sculpture, and visualizations of paths and progress, our breakthrough came from an activity not typically associated with the region: snowboarding. The way riders shift direction and maintain momentum became the perfect expression of the precision, agility, and flow that define forex mastery.
Translating that concept into a sandboarder carving through sweeping desert landscapes gave us a cinematic visual language that was both culturally rooted in the UAE and unmistakably distinct within the category. With a desert shoot off the table, we developed a pioneering hybrid production model that combined a controlled studio shoot with AI-generated world-building, delivering the concept's cinematic ambition within budget and on schedule.
Execution
Building a Desert World With Human Craft and AI
Our image-to-video hybrid production workflow blended a one-day studio shoot with generative AI environment creation. The shoot captured human performance with full control over lighting, wardrobe, and movement, while cultural authenticity guided every detail. Riders’ outfits incorporated regional design cues and weather-appropriate textures, while the soundtrack was composed with sounds and rhythms inspired by the Gulf region.
The initial tools struggled with the naturalistic movement, sand simulation, and physics required, given our specific lighting conditions and costumes. We pivoted to Google Veo’s image-to-video workflow, which excelled at capturing the desired motion and environmental realism. We built the entire desert environment around the studio footage — from expansive dune landscapes to atmospheric lighting and sand-particle dynamics — without needing a multi-day location shoot or extensive post-production. Traditional VFX compositing and color grading were then used to seamlessly blend live-action footage with the AI-generated world.
Thousands of iterations were generated across environment, lighting, and motion to arrive at the precise creative vision, a process that would have been prohibitively expensive and time-consuming using traditional VFX alone. AI didn’t replace the creative team; it gave us a tool to explore and expand ideas with no limits to our imagination.
We then launched across high-impact digital and out-of-home placements throughout the UAE.
Impact
Human craft and AI helped FXTM break through, driving a 200% lift in brand preference.
The campaign asserted what FXTM’s brand could feel like and proved that AI-augmented production can actively enhance creative quality and commercial outcomes when deployed with strategic intent and craft-led execution.
The brand saw a 200% lift in brand preference and a 120% lift in brand familiarity among UAE investors, both significant increases amid a saturated, high-spend category. Ad recall was also strong at 32%, evidence that AI-augmented production can deliver creative that is not only visually mesmerizing but also cuts through and stays top of mind with audiences.
FXTM and PMG turned production limits into a competitive advantage within forex by pairing human creativity with generative AI, showing that strong storytelling combined with the right technology, can reshape the conversation.
200%
Increase in brand preference
We knew we needed to capture attention with a campaign that creatively broke the mould. PMG didn’t just give us a beautiful, striking campaign; they redefined how our brand connects with high-value investors. Taking a leap of faith on a fully hybrid AI production felt like a risk, but we were sold on the smart strategy. The results prove that when you pair human storytelling with cutting-edge technology, you don't just join the conversation - you disrupt it.
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