Ally Bank aims to be an ally to its customers, and in its latest campaign, the brand wants its customers to show how they are allies to their community.
The “we’re all better off with an ally” effort, the bank brand’s largest campaign ever, features people in real-life scenes showing up and being allies.
“Our goal is to reach and engage with as many people as possible with a simple human truth: in everything we want, need and do, we’re all better off with an ally,” said Andrea Brimmer, chief marketing and public relations officer at Ally. “To drive that human, emotional connection with people, our creative features only real people (no professional actors or models) in real life scenes that are captured in stunning visuals and anchored by contextually relevant words ending in ‘_ally,’ which all demonstrates how we, as a digital bank, show up in our customers’ everyday lives.”
Brimmer said that after the last two years of global pandemic, lockdowns, political unrest, social tensions and economic chaos led to the new campaign. “Unfortunately, 2021 picked up where 2020 left off,” said Brimmer. “As many Americans continued to struggle, the idea of allyship was never as important as it is now. Our customers shared their appreciation for the fact that we were there for them at the start of the pandemic, helping them navigate all of the moments that require managing their money. Their feedback helped us crystallize the meaning of our brand promise and served as the inspiration for this new campaign.”
The media buy includes a 360-degree buy including social, outdoor and TV spots. The ads are running during SEC football games, Monday Night Football, and other high-audience primetime programming. The effort is running on 700 outdoor boards across nine U.S. cities. Additionally, the brand is running a social media campaign, including the brand’s first try at TikTik with the #myfinallymoment challenge which calls on consumers to show how they are showing up and being an ally. In the first three days since launch, the brand generated 3.5 billion views and 2,000 videos were created with their branded effect.
“The concept of being better off with an ally transcends demographic barriers, and we see this campaign resonating with not just one or two groups of people, but with most,” said Brimmer. “We have diversified our media buy across platforms – from TV and OOH to TikTok and host of brand sponsorships – to reach these various audiences. Our goal is for this campaign to bring our collective attention back to the importance of having strong allies in our lives, and that when it comes to having a financial ally in their corner, people will think of us.”
The campaign is also being integrated throughout ally’s brand partnership programming. “For example, it’s being integrated into our recently announced collaboration with WarnerMedia, DC and Milestone Media to support Black and diverse creators in the comic book genre (heroicALLY) and with our NASCAR sponsorship when driver Alex Bowman wins another race (dramaticALLY),” said Brimmer.
Ally worked with Creative agency Anomaly won the concept and creative. MediaCom heads up the media buying, R/GA is running social and digital and MKTG leads sponsorship integrations.
“Being an ally is part of who we are and why we were created. It’s not only in our name, it’s in our DNA and what we have always been about,” said Brimmer. “Sometimes the best marketing is not marketing at all, but authentic brand acts – and that’s what we chose to deliver on. While historically known for disruptive marketing, we understood that it was time for us to lean into the enhanced emotional connection we created through our actions during the pandemic and beyond. Just as humanity guided our thinking, it now needed to reveal itself in our work. We knew we needed to harness a different level of emotion, one that epitomized the goodwill consumers felt towards us. This sparked a series of marketing actions, all built around a crystal-clear idea: We are all better off with an ally.”
