Brex’s new campaign shows a company that wants to go deeper into SMB finances
- The campaign advertises Brex’s all-in-one finance solution that consolidates four services into one dashboard.
- The campaign targets SMBs with a ‘less is more’ message so owners can worry less about finances and do more to grow their businesses.
In mid-May, Brex began a multi-week campaign to advertise its latest offering by showcasing how small business owners are using the platform to manage their finances.
Brex CMO June Sauvaget is the brains behind the campaign, which advertises Brex’s all-in-one dashboard that includes credit cards, business cash accounts, new spend management, and bill pay software. The campaign targets local businesses through a combination of digital, video, social media and out-of-home ads in Houston, Washington D.C., and Miami. The campaign features stories from four SMB owners: a local bakery, a children’s book author, a snack maker and a child safety nonprofit organization.
The campaign is featured in public spaces like transit shelters and billboards across the three cities, with simple, clutter-free visuals and text in Brex’s signature orange. Some of the advertisements spotlight why SMBs love Brex -- one owner says he saves 30 hours a month on his finances. Another set of ads that focuses on the campaign’s slogan, “remember why you started,” that’s followed by a reason from each SMB owner on why they started their business. For example, one owner says he started his business “for possibilities” and another says “to hone my craft.”
Brex says that 45 percent of its clients are small businesses. With the new campaign, the company wants to increase its share by capitalizing on a common pain point across SMBs, which is that they are underserved and underbanked.
“Candidly, banks don’t make as much money off [SMBs] as they do larger businesses,” says Sauvaget. “The businesses we work with...[feel] like small fish in a big pond -- frequently overlooked and deprioritized when it comes to customer service or product innovation.”
To address and resolve that pain point, Sauvaget says it was important to understand the motivations, priorities, and the general ‘why’ that drives small business owners. Sauvaget says that most feel a high level of personal accountability in their work.
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“Their business isn’t just work, it’s their livelihood and the livelihood of the employees, customers, and families they support,” says Sauvaget.
In its research, Brex also found that small business owners spend a lot of their time managing the day-to-day and their purpose -- strategic growth and serving their communities gets lost in the sauce.
“There’s a common message out there that you need to do more, network more, sell more, earn more; put in more hours, get more followers,” says Sauvaget. “We wanted to offer a reprieve from all that...so [SMBs] can do less -- and remember why [they] started.”
The campaign was built on this ‘less is more’ insight -- that Brex can uncomplicate finances for small businesses so owners can get back to what really matters to them. To really drive the message home, Sauvaget wanted to work with real Brex SMB clients who had used Brex as a tool in their business growth, but location was also important. Houston, Miami and D.C. are all cities where Brex has a strong client base that it wanted to build on. Consequently, the team chose a few businesses that were local to their OOH campaign, such as Macarooz in Houston, Domaselo in Miami, and Kid Power and Snacklins in D.C.
Since Brex began marketing, Sauvaget says that brand searches from these three cities jumped by 60 percent month over month while similar cities remained relatively stable. She also says that Brex is seeing an accelerated rate of customer growth nationwide since the launch of the campaign.
Brex’s all-in-one finance solution launched in late April. Sauvaget says that traditionally, the products offered -- credit cards, business cash accounts, new spend management, and bill pay software -- are provided by separate institutions, creating fragmented financial systems that sour the customer experience.
“With Brex, customers can get everything they need to optimize their finances easily, effectively, and accurately,” says Sauvaget.
Before becoming a Brex client, Madeline McNaughton, head of business development and marketing at Brick Street Farms, says that Brick Street was using a combination of different bank accounts and credit card providers, most of which were operating on technology that didn't meet Brick Street’s needs. McNaughton said that since onboarding with Brex in February, Brick Street Farms has saved hundreds of dollars in bank fees over the past couple of months.
She also says that Brex has helped the team save between five to seven hours per week that they can reinvest into other areas of their business.