I wonder whether you should actually take a full 180 from the expected marketing, and pivot to things that you are proactive about that other people aren’t.
For example the Gambling Block, or the Fraud Protection (eg: Ticketmaster Breach) … Stuff that is fantastic, but isn’t necessarily specifically bank oriented - also, including travelling abroad with zero charge … Basel in Switzerland might be a place to do this, being so close to France, German & Switzerland itself, you can show how it works in 3 countries with zero charge from Monzo.
People will be like “Yea, so what if it has instant notifications” … But if you’re more about caring for your customers money, and wellbeing, you might be in a better position.
I think if you had the committed spending pots ready, you could market the hell out of that, as it’s one of the biggest problems that non-money savvy people have … putting money aside for bills etc.
I’d definitely steer clear of the overdraft/loan facilities. If not, simply because some people have different views/opinions on the costs of that.
I was stopped in the Co-op in Sheffield last night when I was paying with my Monzo card. The cashiers said that the card “wouldn’t be lost in the dark” and asked what card it was. I told them about Monzo and the app, instant notifications, budgeting and that they are now Which recommended.
When I met my partner, and saw their Monzo card, I was intrigued by the colour and ended up signing up. The card is very attention grabbing on its own.
Overhead shot scanning piles of boring coloured bank cards, scanning and scanning, until it zips past something coral, moves back to find the coral, finds it and zooms into the card into a world of real time notifications and gambling blocks and 24/7 customer support and community forums and budget controls etc etc once every feature has been listed the camera pans out to the Monzo logo which delivers a single heartbeat and does a light thud.
I think there will be an element of this… if possible Id like to get across who we are and what we are building as well. There is only so much you can do in 30 or 60 seconds though. Tough choices ahead.
This has been briefly mentioned in a couple of posts above, but largely missing from this thread is any discussion of Monzo’s ethics. I think this should be in there somewhere if possible (or if doing a series of ads focusing on different aspects, this should be one that’s covered). I’ve convinced a few friends to sign up, and it was pretty easy to sell them on the features (as discussed by others ). But then they all asked about the ethics. It happened to be important to these people (who were all with Co-op or Nationwide), though I don’t know what the size of the market is where this is a key consideration. But anecdotally it’s been significant for me when talking to people.
I’d suggest a campaign based around the hot coral card, with different versions of advert highlighting a different Monzo benefit and with a different demographic in the ad.
The reason I think it should be based around the hot coral card is because there must be millions of people who have seen one in the wild, consciously or unconsciously thinking “that’s a bright and interesting card” but who haven’t struck up the conversation as it’s not socially appropriate (it’s usually the cashier rather than the 10 ppl behind you in the queue who asks the questions, so how do the other ppl who saw it know what it is?),
Maybe the person isn’t within a social group already infiltrated by Monzo’s word of mouth virality so they wouldn’t find out what it was without seeing an advert about it.
Could be a common intro to tv ads showing hot coral card and saying Monzo is making money work for everyone. Why do you use Monzo?
Could then be a different version of the rest of the ad for each selling point and to appeal to different demographics. Eg. Zoom in on older couple on holiday holding hot coral card… “we use Monzo for the no fee foreign card usage”… another one could zoom in on younger lads in the pub holding hot coral cards… “we use Monzo to split the bill easily”. Another one zooms in on parent with child holding hot coral … “We use Monzo to round up our purchases and save for our future” etc etc.
I think that sometimes the great features sometimes are promoted too much over the fact it’s a bank account. Gets pitched as a budgeting tool, great to spend abroad, easy way to split bills but for people just wanting to switch to a better account that needs explaining too
In work, I don’t need to sell any more, I sip from a monzo mug and often tut when people get out non hot coral cards… (Pinch of salt needed…)
I actually really like @Peter_G suggestion. I really don’t need to do much persuading to people I know, I tell them “my story” and how much better life is now vs my previous bank. People still have this misunderstanding and sometimes say “is it really a bank?” So why not play on this, it is a bank, that is already changing lives for many, especially the ones every other bank was leaving behind. The pure fact I believe monzo actually cares is an amazingly quality hard to force or plan to do easily.
I think there should be some ads with Tom on them, it’s pretty important to me to know there’s a real person behind a bank (I know there’s a whole team) but rather than picturing them as an old legacy bank with actors.
Real customers, real staff and real stories. Monzo is all about getting back to real life and taking back control for me.
I Used CASS as an example today to show a friend how good Monzo is to use…
Im doing a cleanup of my accounts and wanted to close a couple of them, so I showed them how Barclays wanted me to go into a branch (20 miles away) and Santander wanted me to also to go into a branch after making an appointment…
I then proceeded on opening my Monzo app and within a minute moved my Barclays account to Monzo…
I was actually intending on moving an account TO Barclays but because they’re being so awkward decided to close them instead…I’ve moved my Santander to RBS for the same reason also… it’s 2019, ain’t nobody got time for bank branches
). But then they all asked about the ethics. It happened to be important to these people (who were all with Co-op or Nationwide), though I don’t know what the size of the market is where this is a key consideration. But anecdotally it’s been significant for me when talking to people.
