When a PR campaign is sharply focused and creative, it can cut through to your audience in a way that traditional media can’t.

In our experience, the key to success is understanding how your value proposition solves specific problems for your target audience. What’s more, given the ‘public’ nature of PR, it’s also important to show how your brand is working hard towards a social good that matters to your audience. That could be gender diversity, preventing scams or supporting local small businesses.

Here are four financial services campaigns that landed enviable results, some of them on quite lean budgets, too!

We hope you find them inspiring.

Campaign 1

State Street Global Advisors – Fearless Girl

What happened

• Outdoor. On the eve of International Women’s Day, 2017, State Street Global Advisors positioned its Fearless Girl statue to stare down the famous Wall Street bull.
• Social media. State Street Global Advisors created #FearlessGirl and encouraged people across the world to use it on their social media accounts to promote workplace gender diversity and share images of the statue.¹

Message

The campaign highlighted workplace gender diversity and encouraged companies to recruit women to their boards. The statue’s placement also marked the first anniversary of State Street Global Advisors’ exchange-traded Gender Diversity Index SHE fund. Although the campaign was a product push, core to its strength was that it didn’t feel like marketing. Instead, State Street Global Advisors contributed to a timely and important conversation.

Results

• Average daily trading volume for State Street Global Advisors’ SHE Fund increased 384% in the week after launch.²
• In the first 12 hours, the campaign attracted over 1 billion Twitter impressions, rising to 3.3 billion Twitter impressions in 5 weeks.³
• Share of voice increased 379% between 7 March and 31 March that year.⁴
• Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney was encouraged by the campaign to re-introduce her Gender Diversity in Corporate Leadership Act.⁵
• The campaign won several Shorty Social Good Awards.⁶

Campaign 2

NAB – Valentine’s Day break up

What happened

• Social media. NAB kicked off the campaign with what looked like an accidental tweet: ‘Soooo stressed out. Have to make a tough decision and I know I’ll probably hurt someone’s feelings! Arrggghhh.’⁷
• Experiences. On the evening of 14 February 2011, sixty groups of bankers – actors hired by NAB – publicly broke up in restaurants, bars and public spaces across Australia. The performances were filmed and posted online ahead of an above-the-line and social media campaign. NAB also ambushed a rival bank’s executive lunch with singing waiters who presented a break-up cake. Window cleaners plastered a break-up note on an office window during a rival bank’s meeting. Then a pianist sang break-up songs outside the CBD offices of another banking competitor.⁸
• Outdoor. NAB blanketed Australia’s major cities with giant relationship break-up notes plastered on the sides of buildings. Banners with break-up messages were flown across the sky by helicopters.
• Press coverage. The blitz got widespread news coverage.

Message

Leading up to the campaign, the Australian media had reported that the pubic believed there was no real competition between the major banks.⁹ The campaign message was that NAB was breaking away from the practices of the other major banks in how it offered value to its customers.¹⁰

Results

• The campaign became the highest trending topic on Twitter and attracted $5 million worth of earned media exposure.¹¹
• 79% increase in the number of new mortgage customers and a 50% increase in credit card applications.¹²
• 225,000 customer transfers from bank competitors.¹³
• Won best PR campaign at the Cannes Lions Festival.¹⁴

And these results were achieved despite a trimmed media ad budget versus the previous year!

Campaign 3

HomeEquity Bank – Catch the Scam

What happened

Social media. In 2020, con man Frank Abagnale, the real-life subject of the Hanks and Dicaprio movie Catch Me If You Can, delivered a series of YouTube masterclasses for HomeEquity Bank on how to avoid modern scams. Amplified on Facebook, each masterclass featured a video of Frank explaining how he would scam his victims and then a lesson on how to avoid being scammed yourself.

Message

With scam warnings beginning to feel like wallpaper, the campaign cut through to Canadian-based HomeEquity Bank’s over 55 audience by using relevant messaging, such as the ‘grandparent scam’. The campaign presented the bank as an advocate and champion for its customer base.

Results

• For a total spend of CA$25,000, the social-only campaign delivered 1.2 million views on YouTube and 817,000 views on Facebook. It received over 35 million earned media impressions.¹⁵
• Major TV media interviews about the campaign with Frank Abagnale.¹⁶
• Multiple industry awards, such as the Atomic Bronze Award and The Drum Awards for digital industries.¹⁷

Campaign 4

American Express – Shop Small

What happened

• Sales incentives. Starting as a response in the US to the Global Financial Crisis, the Shop Small campaign (as it’s called in Australia) has gone international, including here in Australia as of 2013. Running each year, the Shop Small campaign incentivises AMEX members with cashbacks and bonus reward points to shop at local small stores. Participating merchants display AMEX-branded point of sale advertising (in store and online).¹⁸
• Virtual masterclasses. A resource for small businesses looking for ideas for growth; ‘Australia’s most accomplished experts and entrepreneurs’¹⁹are at the helm of the American Express Idea Exchange virtual masterclasses.²⁰

Message

• American Express supports local small businesses persistently and consistently through both good and tough economic seasons.

Results

• Shop Small has seen more than $6 billion spent at Australian small businesses, from 2013 to 2020, by American Express card members.²¹
• There was a 24% uplift in new card members going into the stores of those that made the American Express branding obvious.²²
• By supporting small businesses year-on-year through difficult economic conditions, such as COVID-19 and the cost-of-living crisis, AMEX has strengthened its relationships with government and industry associations.²³

Get noticed by your audience

Because financial services are important to the wellbeing of every Australian, as an industry, we’re already part of the national conversation. It’s easier for us to get customer attention versus other industries – what we do matters.

There are innovative ways that you can get your marketing budget to work harder.

At Crafted Writing, we’ve had decades of experience helping financial services companies cut through the noise with highly creative campaigns. So, if you want to tell your brand’s story in a fresh and compelling way, contact us at hello@craftedwriting.com