Marketing Briefing: For Capital One, marketing is a sport
- Introducing Tearsheet's biweekly marketing briefing!
- Kicking things off with Capital One's sporty marketing moves, our Acquire Conference (woot woot!), and a downloadable version of our recently published 'Gens Under the Lens' series
We’re wrapping up the newest month of the newest year with Tearsheet’s marketing briefing.
Competition is heating up. And fintechs and incumbents have been doing a lot to stand out in an increasingly expanding market. This year shouldn’t be any different, and we want to make sure we keep you in the loop.
From fintechs fighting to capture Gen Z interest, to incumbents going all out to improve brand likeability, 2022 promises to be pretty spicy in terms of financial marketing.
So here’s what you can expect: Every two weeks, I, Rivka Abramson (the Tearsheet reporter with the slightly squeaky voice), will bring you a snappy review of some of the things and thoughts currently permeating the overlapping world of finance and marketing – finmarketing, if you will.
For Capital One, marketing is a sport
In a recent initiative, Capital One signed on to become MLB’s banking sponsor. This comes after Bank of America chose not to continue on with MLB following its 18 years of sponsorship. BoA will, however, still sponsor seven MLB teams. The latter bank said it’s doing this to achieve more local emphasis in its marketing.
With its new banking sponsorship, Capital One can now issue MLB themed credit cards.
Until now, Bank of America has been offering MLB-branded cash-reward credit cards. Last week, though, the bank announced that it will be converting these to regular cards, giving Capital One MLB banding rights.
Other than that, there isn’t much known about the new sponsorship just yet – neither Capital One nor MLB have commented. Still, it looks like the deal will officially be announced when a collective bargaining agreement is completed between the two parties.
At this point, Capital One kind of has a long history in sports-linked marketing initiatives and campaigns.
In December 2020, the bank became the new presenting sponsor of The Rose Bowl, the annual American college football game.
In 2017, meanwhile, the company purchased the naming rights for an indoor arena in Washington, previously known as Verizon Center, calling it Capital One Arena, instead. The venue is linked to a lot of historical events, like Mike Tyson’s final fight and two all-star games, including the 2001 NBA All-Star Game and the 2007 WNBA All-Star Game.
Going further back – in 2010, Capital One started what it calls the Capital One Cup, an award given to colleges to acknowledge athletic success across sports teams.
All these marketing moves have been about reestablishing trust in an already faithful customer base, according to Dror Zaifman, director of digital marketing at iCash, a Canada-based fintech company. Capital One has a big presence in Washington, for example, and renaming a highly-frequented arena in the State helps in reconnecting with existing customers. In line with the renaming, Capital One was also offering discounts and deals to people with Capital One bank accounts.
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“Being a big bank, it’s easy for them to go with such big projects. They have to consistently provide their customers with new products and services to retain them,” said Zaifman. “Such moves are a great way to reignite their interest and loyalty.”
Our Acquire conference is coming up and so are our Acquire Awards (we’re still looking for submissions, by the way…)
Can’t mention Tearsheet, marketing, and finance without mentioning our upcoming Acquire Conference – and our Acquire Awards, for that matter.
So here it goes:
In less than a month – February 22, to be exact – we’ll be hosting our second-ever Acquire Conference, highlighting how the most innovative companies in the financial industry are tackling the biggest questions in marketing today, from how to master influencer marketing, to going from fintech to lifestyle brand in the smoothest way possible.
We’ve got some awesome topics and amazing speakers lined up, so if you haven't already, I seriously recommend you sign up.
It’s online, which means you can get all the ins and outs of what’s happening in financial marketing today, and stay in your PJs. (I think at this point we can all agree in-person conferences are more fun but – come on – everything has a bright side, right?)
Now about those awards…
Tearsheet’s Acquire Awards is the financial industry’s top awards program focused on marketing, customer acquisition, and growth. They’re intended to identify and celebrate the best customer-facing work in financial services.
So here are the categories we’re looking at:
- Marketer of the Year
- Marketing Team of the Year
- Campaign of the Year
- Agency of the Year
- Most Creative Campaign
- Best Content Series (B2B)
- Best Content Series (B2C)
- Best Product Marketing
Any of these categories resonate with you? Let us know! Find out more and register here.
A review of our new series, ‘Gens under the lens’ – now available for download
We closed off last year with a thorough breakdown of the financial consumer profile of each of the generations, and the compiled guide is now available for download
The guide for marketers starts off with the oldest generation, currently in their golden years – Boomers – who have a lot to deal with, from retirement coming up and Covid-induced inflation seeping in.
After them are the busiest, and often forgotten, financial consumers – Gen Xers – in the peak of both their earning and spending years.
Then the biggest and most racially diverse generation yet – Millennials – balancing high student loans and inflation as they set their sights on first major purchases.
And finally the youngest financial consumers today – Gen Z or Zoomers – the most tech-savvy group leading the demand for digital-first finance.
Download the guide to learn about the generational differences across financial consumers:
- The archetype of each generation
- Their money troubles: why they worry
- Their financial literacy: what they know (or don’t)
- Their saving, investing, and spending behaviors
- How they feel towards financial services
- The financial tools and companies serving each generation
- A look into each generation’s upcoming financial future
What we’re reading
- Circle onboards Sherice Torres, previously CMO at Novi, as new chief marketing officer (PYMNTS)
- What Gen Z looks for from fintech companies (WSJ)
- Certain financial institutions are getting rid of the word ‘bank’ from their branding efforts – good or bad thing? (Financial Brand)
- As competition with mainstream banks heats up, fintechs up their game (WSJ)
- Cadence Bank’s new logo (Daily Journal)
- Some fintech marketing trends for 2022, marketing automation to refreshed KPIs (Finextra)
- The wellness wave is here; 52% of consumers expect banks, cars, and airlines to offer wellness options (PR Week)
- Reinventing premium bonds for Generation TikTok (Sifted)
What we're writing
- Data Snack: SMBs want more embedded banking options
- Stash adds crypto offering to its ‘Smart Portfolio’
- Truist Ventures wants to bring ‘surprise and delight’ to financial services through its investments
- From one idea to 2 million applications: TomoCredit wants to change the credit score game
- ‘The conversation in most bank boardrooms now is can we digitize fast enough?’: Numerated’s Dan O’Malley
- Deep Dive: Current
- ‘What fintechs have done right is understanding who their customer is, and building for them’: BlueVine’s Herman Man
- Stripe inks e-commerce and payments deal with Ford
- What JPMorgan is doing with that $12 billion tech spend
- Who led banking app downloads in 2021?