Long Term Partnerships, Huge and Zelle

Mark Weintraub
GVP of Client Services Huge
 
 

What is the longevity of the relationship between your agency and the brand and how did this relationship begin?

The Zelle relationship started at the beginning of 2016 with a request to support the development of an entirely new product owned by 7 of the leading US banks. Since the beginning the relationship, we have expanded our services from product/ UX into brand development, marketing, analytics, media and public relations. We have evolved to develop a true 360 degree client relationship with Zelle.

 

 

Tell us about the first campaign your agency worked on for the brand.

Huge was responsible for managing the strategy, creative development, consumer testing, asset production, media planning, buying, optimizing and campaign analytics for the launch campaign for Zelle in October of 2017. Zelle was an innovative product in the financial space, because it allows users to send and receive money instantly to between any US bank without fees.

We knew this innovative product needed an "un-bank" like approach so we partnered with the star of Broadway’s Hamilton, Daveed Diggs to create broadcast and digital spots to launch this product to the US public. The national spot for the campaign premiered at the Grammy's and the Super Bowl pre-game, in addition to running across OOH, print, radio and digital. We also created a robust real-time social media initiative staring Daveed Diggs supporting our efforts where users could create custom social videos asking someone to pay them back using Zelle.

 

 

What has been the most innovative/successful campaign created by your agency for the brand?

By redefining the peer-to-peer payment space, Zelle has helped change the conversation between banks and their customers. In just the first 6 months, the campaign achieved it’s aggressive awareness goals and generated over 2.2B impressions. This drove over 100,000 enrollments per day resulting in $99B sent and received seamlessly across the network.

But we're only getting started. We have only just launched the brand to the consumer market last year, and are currently working on the 2019 campaign which will involve everything from strategy, creative development, PR activation, consumer testing, asset production, media planning, and campaign analytics. 

 

 

What do you identify as being the biggest change to the industry as a whole?

Digital payment services were becoming more ubiquitous. So when we first launched Zelle, there was a need to majorly educating people on what P2P payments services were. We are now in a position where we have had enormous success and are able to start to focus on usage and preference as there is a baseline knowledge of what a digital payment service is, and luckily we still get to work alongside our client to accomplish this. 

 

 

What way do you work with the brand to keep up with the industry changes?

Our belief here at Huge is that great products, experiences and communications are built from user-centric truths. It's a great thing that Zelle shares this belief with us. 

The payments landscape is constantly shifting, so together with our client partners, we talk to people often. Our aim is to sift through the industry hype, getting to the core of consumer payment habits and how they want to use Zelle. It seems simple, but unfortunately in today's marketing landscape too often an industry understanding is devoid of any real world flavor. In our client partnership, staying ahead of change means being in touch with what ordinary people want by speaking to them, not inhaling the fumes of any wider industry rhetoric.

 

 

What factors have enabled you both to stay in a partnership for so long? And how do you plan on keeping this relationship going forward?

Our clients consider us as an extension of their team and equal partners, they look to us for strategic and creative guidance and this means we are an invaluable part of their business. We have built a relationship of trust and mutual respect, which makes it easy to have an open dialogue. If issues do arise, we are able to communicate and come to a resolution together. 

We have good processes in place and consider ourselves a well oiled machine. As long as we keep providing the same level of service and expertise, our partnership will continue to thrive. More to come from us soon.