Capital One
Humanizing a tech-forward bank with progressive, engaging social media campaigns
B2C: Concepts, pitch & presentation (won business), copywriting, creative direction
Collaborators: Sean Leonard, John Livingston, Bonnie Rohan, Howard Hill, Jon Copp
How do you keep a brand fresh and new after decades of asking “what’s in your wallet?”
Leading T3’s Capital One team, I generated two concepts that got amazing traction across Instagram and Facebook, driving strong metrics and overwhelming engagement.
Short story: it helped Capital One shape its brand narrative in altogether new directions.
Campaign:
Instagram “Wallet Stories”
Instagram and Facebook campaign
In an effort to humanize their tech-forward master brand (that was the brief), we asked consumers “what else is in your wallet?”
In the early days of Instagram influencers and artists, we showed off personal keepsakes, photos, and mementoes and memories people have folded into their wallets.
The posts were funny, moving, wry, personal, and tragic. The reactions were massive, generating a 16% jump in recall and a cover story in Adweek, CapitalOne’s most successful social campaign to date.
“Advertising that tells a story and delivers on a brand’s essence. Whomever runs the CapitalOne account is good.”
— Instagram user @johnjwatts (in comments)
“I actually look forward to these posts by C1. It’s probably the only ad on Instagram I like and look for.”
— Instagram user @lolaslikes
Campaign:
“My Reward Day” Instagram / Facebook
for Venture card
That day where all those points finally pay off for something amazing? That’s My Reward Day.
My concept was rooted in a celebration of summer travel and Venture’s role in it. The goals were pretty straightforward: get attention and get travelers to think twice about the card in their wallet.
A summer campaign asked Venture travel cardholders to send us a picture from the day and place they cashed in their rewards for travel. Thousands did, squashing my concerns that user generated content campaigns were a risky play.
Key pages from the campaign pitch deck:
We got over 3000 submissions
which we ranked and curated into a series of posts
that in aggregate told the story of Venture’s amazing impact on travel.
We curated them down to the final candidates:
