DOOH: How to effectively market financial services during uncertain times
From Coinbase to Klarna, and Visa to Venmo, there are around 540,000 companies in the finance and insurance sector in the United States alone
January 2023 started off on a high note with strong stock market performance, but with the recent banking collapses, economic uncertainty and changing consumer behaviors, the turbulence in the financial sector over the last quarter has been an almost-daily news topic.
However, despite all the peaks and valleys of 2023 so far, consumer trust in banks remains high with around 80% of Americans reporting having trust that their money is secure in banks. What’s more, March’s job numbers show that unemployment is still low (3.5%), and consumer sentiment around topics like personal finances and business conditions is up 4.2% year-over-year.
For financial services brands, this period of ups and downs may feel like a bumpy roller coaster ride nobody asked for, but it also presents opportunities to strengthen connections with existing customers and strategically grow or solidify their presence within the industry.
In this article, we’ll discuss why building and maintaining brand loyalty is critical in uncertain times and how financial service marketers can leverage digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising to stand out from the crowd and build trust among prospective clients.
Why brand building is crucial now more than ever
When increased competition in the market is combined with a period of economic uncertainty, brand loyalty begins to decline. As consumers become more cost-conscious and seek out deals or incentives, what emerges is a customer base that is ready to part ways with their financial institution as soon as a more enticing option comes around.
While on the surface this may seem like a negative, savvy marketers can take this opportunity to create a genuine connection with their current and potential customers. As learnings from past recessions have shown, brands that continue to invest in growing their presence during turbulent periods have been able to build stronger customer bases and capture market share from competitors that pull back on ad spend during these times.
Programmatic DOOH offers marketers a privacy-safe way to effectively engage consumers with relevant messaging at key moments throughout their daily routines. This enables financial service brands to build and maintain customer loyalty by reaching consumers with consistent branding at multiple touch points through an ad medium consumers trust and believe in.
However, with marketing belts tightening and budgets under greater scrutiny, every dollar counts. New (and even current) campaigns will likely have to provide a greater return on investment (ROI) than ever to remain viable.
With this in mind, here are some tips financial service marketers can use to improve the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns in turbulent economic times.
Focus on building trust with consumers
When customer loyalty is in flux, storytelling is king (or queen). In moments like these, a brand’s success largely depends on its ability to reach its audience with a cohesive message that allows consumers to easily identify and understand its unique advantages over competitors. In other words, financial service brands should focus on building messaging that aligns with their identity and highlights the values most important to their audience.
According to a recent study conducted by Vistar Media and MFour, consumer satisfaction with primary banks is based on:
- Easiness to work with
- Trustworthiness & security
- Good customer service
- Proximity to home/work
Knowing this, a retail bank looking to show consumers it truly cares about its client’s success could build DOOH creatives showcasing how it provides superior customer service, is trustworthy & secure and is easy to bank with.
Additionally, that bank could take the next step and strategically activate screens throughout cities with dynamic creatives near office buildings and apartment complexes showing where the nearest bank location is — reinforcing the message that the bank has many locations and values customer convenience. These efforts will go a long way in building and maintaining brand loyalty in consumers’ minds.
Lean into high-value audiences
Historically, when the economy enters a turbulent period, many companies instinctively lower prices to garner higher short-term sales. However, as history has shown, this is not always a good strategy as lowering prices can also hurt brand perception and ultimately hinder long-term growth.
While it may be counterintuitive to maintain pricing in the face of mounting downward consumer pressure, consider this: research indicates that on average, consumers would be willing to spend up to $284 on an annual credit card fee. But digging deeper, we see that adults ages 18-24 would be willing to spend up to $421 while adults ages 45+ would only be willing to spend $126. What does this mean? Targeting matters.
Instead of discounting products in response to temporary market dips, financial service marketers can focus their efforts on high-value audience segments that are more likely to pay premium prices for financial products or services. This allows brands to maintain their brand reputation while capturing these crucial segments.
For example, if a payment processing company wants to increase awareness and banking intent for its new credit card, it may target a “Frequent Business Travelers” audience and activate screens in relevant travel locations, such as airports, transit stations, hotels, international banks and other related venues to capture the attention of this high-value audience.
Move fast, stay flexible
One of the biggest benefits of activating out-of-home programmatically is the ability to schedule, optimize and iterate campaigns in a matter of minutes. This allows financial service marketers to respond to changing market conditions, trends and consumer sentiment in near real time. Programmatic DOOH also enables brands to swap messaging or run different versions of their messaging based on location, time, demographics, behaviors, weather conditions or other factors.
For financial service marketers that may be facing reduced or more heavily-scrutinized budgets, combining this flexibility with the in-depth measurement capabilities of programmatic DOOH provides the information and ability to make critical decisions to optimize campaign performance – whether that means shifting budget to higher-performing venues, swapping out creative messages in near real-time or pausing campaigns in underperforming areas.
For example, a new cashless payment application running a campaign in urban metros across the United States may see that areas more heavily affected by the recent economic downturn like Silicon Valley, New York City and Seattle are underperforming against metros like Salt Lake City, Philadelphia and Dallas. This difference could be due to people’s heightened wariness toward banking-type applications and reluctance to adopt any new banking-type technology, or maybe it’s just a matter of finding the right messaging that resonates with those audiences. Either way, the brand could respond quickly and shift its messaging or move budget away from the underperforming markets altogether and focus its efforts on the areas that are in fact driving results.
Brand building for long-term growth
As the financial services landscape continues to evolve, marketers need to be smarter than ever to build trust and brand loyalty with high-value audiences. Programmatic DOOH enables financial services brands to engage target consumers with powerful messaging at meaningful touch points and optimize campaigns to drive greater ROI. As the turbulence in the financial market subsides, brands that have put in the legwork to maintain their presence in consumers' minds will be rewarded with increased visibility, more market share and a loyal customer base.