Money matters to the heart: A case study on how to tie customer care with brand engagement
- Ally Bank is dialing into psychology to connect deeper with customers. Its Money Roots campaign encourages customers to explore the narratives they tell each other about money through free workshops.
- It's an example of a campaign that brings customers into contact with the bank without feeling there are strings attached. We dive into how the campaign is built and what strategies it uses to rise above the noise.
As consumers’ financial health wavers in the face of macroeconomic challenges, FIs are looking for ways to enable customers to build better financial futures.
It’s a task that neobanks and fintechs have been better at than traditional FIs. A brief that requires out of the box thinking and bold campaigns has fit challengers like Chime and now, Ally Bank, perfectly.
Recently, Ally launched its Money Roots campaign, which focuses on assisting consumers unpack their feelings and narratives about money by engaging in virtual workshops with experts on topics like people’s values related to money, personal narratives, and how to navigate finances as a couple.
How to build a campaign that rises above the noise
It’s a campaign that focuses on the emotions behind a financial decision rather than just providing tools. Money Roots works as a case study in how engagement can be married to customer care, and a rare example of what happens when the worlds of psychology and financial services come together.
“Up until now, banks have been focused on the how – teaching hard skills and providing tools that help people manage their finances. Yet, even with skills and tools, Americans are racking up record-breaking debt and feeling financial stress and anxiety like never before,” said Jack Howard, Head of Money Wellness at Ally.
It seems that every time a brand wants to show it cares about its consumers’ wellbeing, it launches a PFM, but Ally is trying to do something different. The firm’s workshops enable customers to explore their beliefs about money, understand what their personal narratives surrounding finances are, and provide guidance around building financial health roadmaps. The firm has also kept the reach of this program as wide as possible: Money Roots is free and requires no purchases to participate.
Money Roots online workshops and their curriculum was created after the firm worked closely with financial therapy and money psychology experts, according to Howard.
“I’ve been piloting the Money Roots workshops for several months and have spent the last 14 years helping people better understand money through financial education initiatives during my time at Ally. We came to realize people not only need to understand the skills of money – how to save, spend and invest – but to create real change, people need to understand their mindset around money,” said Howard.
With the core idea in hand, campaign builders have to transform into storytellers – a job that requires going beyond numbers and pulling at the threads that connect communities and people.
This is how Ally went from an idea to a campaign that stands out:
Find a name: Humans use a lot of nature-related metaphors, and some brands have really leveraged these well. Take Acorns, for example. The firm’s name references the metaphor “mighty oaks from little acorns grow” and is a representation of their approach to investing: slow and methodical. Acorns built on these metaphors while launching the Mighty Oak card with a campaign that featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
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