Peru has more than 4,000 smartphones stolen every day. Beyond the physical loss, each theft creates a financial emergency that the banking system was not designed to solve. The emergency hotline to block an account requires a phone. The banking app requires a phone. The authentication tools require a phone. The one thing a theft victim does not have is the one thing every recovery mechanism depends on. BCP, Peru’s largest bank, and Circus Grey Lima found the answer in an object that already exists on every street corner in the country.
The Problem the Campaign Identified
When a phone is stolen, the clock starts immediately. Every second the thief has access to the device is a second they have access to banking apps, digital wallets, and payment credentials. BCP’s emergency blocking service, like that of every other bank, requires a phone call to activate. The victim, who has just had their phone taken, cannot make that call. By the time they borrow a stranger’s device or reach a branch, the damage may already be done.
The solution did not require new infrastructure. It required a different way of seeing infrastructure that already existed.
What SOS POS Is
Peru’s commercial landscape is dense with POS terminals, the small payment machines that sit on the counters of corner stores, pharmacies, market stalls, and small businesses across every city and neighbourhood. Every participating merchant already has one. Every Peruvian already interacts with them daily. BCP and Circus Grey reframed those devices as a distributed emergency banking network.
Under SOS POS, a theft victim walks into any participating store, approaches the POS terminal, verifies their identity through the device, and their bank accounts are blocked instantly. No smartphone. No app. No internet access. No phone call required. The same machine a shopkeeper uses to process a grocery payment becomes the mechanism that protects a theft victim’s life savings in the worst moment of their day.
The initiative also repositioned local merchants. Every participating business was given a new role in their community: not just a retailer, but a trusted support point during a financial emergency. The SOS POS sticker on a shop’s door signals to theft victims that help is available inside.
The Scale
SOS POS launched with 17,500 active locations across Peru. The network is scaling to 120,000 terminals by the end of 2026. The service has already reached more than 34 million Peruvians, making it one of the most rapidly scaled financial protection tools launched by any bank in the region. The coverage is not limited to urban centres. Because the POS terminal network extends across Peru’s geography, the service is available in communities where a bank branch is not.
The Cannes Recognition
At Cannes Lions 2026, SOS POS won the Creative Data Lions Grand Prix, alongside a Gold in Digital Craft, a Gold in Creative Data, and a Bronze in Direct. The Creative Data Lions received 391 entries. The jury awarded 13 Lions in total. The Grand Prix went to Lima.
Anupriya Acharya, CEO of Publicis Groupe South Asia and Creative Data Lions Jury President, delivered the citation with a phrase that captures what makes the idea structurally unusual: “Our Grand Prix work stood apart for the beautiful simplicity of its idea and the imaginative use of data. Data used to protect data. It turned an everyday payment terminal into a lifeline at a moment of real vulnerability. It solved a human problem, strengthened trust in a difficult-to-differentiate banking category, and showed how Creative Data can drive business impact while scaling protection for people and society in a way that can transcend boundaries.”
The phrase “data used to protect data” identifies what separates SOS POS from a standard financial product launch. The campaign is not about generating new data or using data to target advertising. It is about using the data infrastructure that already connects POS terminals to banking systems to serve the person whose data is most at risk at the most vulnerable moment they will experience in their relationship with any financial institution.
SOS POS was one of two Cannes Grand Prix wins for Peru in 2026, alongside Club Deportivo Municipal’s “The Thousand Sponsors of Muni,” which won the Entertainment Lions for Sport Grand Prix. Peru finished the festival with eleven Lions in total, its strongest showing in the festival’s history.
Why the Idea Works Beyond Peru
Phone theft and the financial vulnerability it creates are not problems unique to Peru. Every country where banking has migrated to smartphones, which is effectively every country in the world, shares the same structural gap: the mechanism for protecting accounts requires the device that has just been lost. SOS POS is a proof of concept that the solution is available wherever POS terminals exist, which is essentially everywhere modern retail operates.
Campaign Name: SOS POS
Agency Name: Circus Grey Lima / Grey
Brand Name: BCP (Banco de Crédito del Perú)
Location: Peru (national; 17,500 locations at launch, scaling to 120,000 by the end of 2026)
