YouTube influencers and smart video creative helped Saxo Bank increase client acquisition by 280%. Here's how you can too, in four easy steps.
Investment banking: more associated with corporations, billionaires and Gordon Gekko. In other words, not an easy sell to the average person. That’s the challenge that Saxo Bank had to solve with their latest offering, SaxoInvestor, a new low-cost service that encourages investor newbies to use the bank’s online trading platform.
Video was the clear answer, but how could they make the content watchable? More than that, how could they make it relevant to audiences that wouldn’t normally consider investing?
Saxo Bank undertook a three day Google ZOO MAChINE Sprint™ (where clients, agency partners and the ZOO work together across all Google platforms to fast-track testable solutions). Together with Saxo’s creative agency, Advice, they created a strategy. Here’s how they did it, in four easy steps.
Step 1: Build awareness
“We wanted the launch campaign to engage with viewers across the entire customer journey, from reach and awareness to consideration and signups. We also wanted to move quickly,” explains Mads Cramer, Global Head of Brand, Content & Design at Saxo Bank. And they did indeed move quickly, with just five weeks to turnaround the campaign from concept to execution.
Even the best creative in the world will do little to drive real business results if the right people aren’t seeing it. The team had a ‘go broad’ KPI that was a departure from Saxo Bank’s usual narrower pro-investor target. Strong reach was important, but performance was paramount, so it needed to reach audiences that were more likely to convert.
With a wide range of different versions of the same creative concept, their aim was to establish the main USP of their new product to a broad audience. They developed a creative ecosystem of videos, which was used to unfold an episodic story. Tactical episodes explained features and a range of investment options, while relatable local Danish influencers were at the heart of the story.
Step 2: Make it relatable
Saxo established a partnership with two major Danish influencers, Anders Breinholt and Signe Wenneberg, who had an affinity for two of the main investment categories, automobiles and sustainability respectively. Anders Breinholt is a late night TV host and media personality with a known passion for cars, while Signe Wenneberg is a climate activist, writer and public speaker that focuses on sustainability in everyday life.
“They were the right fit for the brand,” Mads Cramer explains. “Signe and Anders have a good interest in investment and were a trustworthy fit for this campaign. They both have deep industry knowledge which they could translate into finding investment opportunities. We didn’t even need to script any of the production - everything came naturally."
By collaborating with influencers who have both an established fanbase and knowledge of the themes covered in the episodes, Saxo ensured the video content was authentic. Viewers know what Anders and Signe’s passions are and what they stand for, and this translates into making it relatable. With trusted ambassadors at the helm, investing doesn’t seem so intimidating.
Step 3: Make it understandable
Determined to demystify investment to a Danish audience, the creatives spoke to people not familiar with the investment world. A sequence of videos showcased the “ease-of-use” of the SaxoInvestor platform and how personal interests and values can be transformed into a portfolio.
Episodes lasted over 4 minutes and took the users on a journey through the investment process for a ‘normal’ person with a specific passion as seen through the eyes of the influencers.
Take Signe Wenneberg. She had no prior experience with investing banking, and the videos showcase Signe buying her first shares and putting together a portfolio of sustainable and responsible investments. Watching episodic content took users on the investment journey through the eyes of a newbie.
Step 4: Ensure it’s actionable
The team produced more than 600 creative assets, which were optimised for specific audiences and stages of the customer journey. YouTube’s reach, audience insights, effectiveness of pay per view, and remarketing tactics were used to ensure cost effective reach and incremental conversions.
The creative strategy coupled personalised creative with technology to segment and engage a range of audiences. The strategy comprised of four distinct phases, designed to reach viewers with the right messaging at various stages of the customer journey: short Bumper ads for reach and awareness, Trueview ads for engagement and Trueview for Action with direct-response elements drove users to sign-up pages.
Exceeding every expectation: The results
The approach paid off, with the videos being viewed over 2.7M times, delivering 10,000 conversions and increasing client acquisition in the campaign period by 280%, in a notoriously competitive industry.
“Our marketing campaign exceeded every expectation we could have had,” Mads Cramer reveals. “It performed 250% above target for generated clients and has changed brand perception, including the way our clients speak about us.”
The impressive results have also encouraged Saxo Bank to reconsider its content strategy across channels, as a new way of working with digital content production, further investing in video in light of this success.