With Christmas fast approaching consumers are making a lot of purchases, meaning financial management is at the top of people’s priority lists. In fact, 43% of UK adults are worried about spending too much, 45% of Americans are stressed and 41% of Australians feel financial pressure during this time. While people are most worried about their spending, their financial organisations are at the top of their minds. In a period when consumers are feeling the financial pinch, how can your finance brand create Christmas content that hits?
Get in the Christmas spirit
With Christmas plans last year being affected globally, there’s a lot of excitement and pressure for people to celebrate with less pandemic stress associated. The takeaway for finance brands is that Christmas content needs to be emotionally charged and joyful. Combined with people’s financial stress, your Christmas content and promotional campaigns should look to relieve individuals of their holiday anxieties.
Christmas content is where it’s at
Creating Christmas content that connects with consumers emotionally can help increase brand awareness and lead generation. Emotional content is content that elicits a strong response in the audience, whether that is happiness, sadness or even fear. For your Christmas content you should appeal to customers’ joy or empathy as this encourages consumers to act, with 70% of people who experience an intense emotional response to an ad more likely to purchase from the brand.
“ Out of 1,400 successful advertising campaigns, those with purely emotional content performed about twice as well as those with only rational content ”
Appealing to customers’ emotions through content that generates pathos will help to build an authentic relationship and capture customer attention. In fact, out of 1,400 successful advertising campaigns, those with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) as those with only rational content. Not only that, but by creating emotional advertising campaigns your content will be shared and seen by more people. Whether you’re wanting to create a purely joyful campaign, like Australia’s St. George Bank (below) or elicit empathy like the UK’s Lloyds Bank partnership with charity Llamau (below), by creating an emotional connection you can improve brand awareness and trust.
St. George Bank – Rock someone’s world this Christmas
In Australia, St. George Bank has taken a fun approach to their Christmas content by sharing a video of a son who makes his father, a truck driver, a tape with his favourite music. The tagline, “Rock someone’s world this Christmas” alongside the emotional storyline of his father receiving a handmade gift, builds a fun and caring brand image. With the family storyline, St. George is seen as a community bank that shares in its customers’ Christmas joy helping to connect with consumers this holiday season.
Lloyd’s partnership with Llamau – Sharing Christmas
In the UK, Lloyds Bank has partnered with Llamau, a charity that’s committed to combating homelessness, by becoming a secret Santa. Earlier this year, Lloyds Bank had also created a ‘Sleep Out’ in partnership with Llamau, where individuals would sleep outside to raise money for homelessness. This partnership and becoming a secret Santa helps Lloyds Bank to capture the attention of consumers and showcase their commitment to helping others this Christmas. This helps to build brand loyalty and a sense of trust as it cements their supportive role within the community and builds an image of selflessness.
Goldman Sachs – Small businesses matter this Christmas
In America, Goldman Sachs has taken a slightly different approach by creating content that helps consumers shop with small businesses this Christmas. Christmas content accompanied by the hashtag #MakeSmallBigMarket, encourages consumers to purchase their Christmas gifts from small businesses. This creates a sense of community and support for businesses in America that have been hit hard by the pandemic. It also helps to alleviate some of the stress around Christmas shopping by providing a curated list of gifts which help others, rather than large organisations, through customers individual purchases,
Christmas content that wows
Christmas content doesn’t need to be complicated. It should simply appeal to consumers’ emotions by offering support, sharing community initiatives, and by creating a sense of empathy and joy.
While your finance brand can go the big-budget video approach like many businesses, it doesn’t have to. Taking a simpler approach like Lloyds Bank or Goldman Sachs can also wow consumers, helping to generate leads and improve brand awareness and brand image.
