Company: Hancock Whitney; Gulfport, Mississippi/New Orleans, LA
Company Description: Hancock Whitney offices and financial centers in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas offer comprehensive financial products and services, including traditional and online banking; commercial and small business banking; private banking; trust and investment services; healthcare banking; and mortgage services.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Financial Products & Services
 Nomination Title: NO is a Beautiful Thing
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
May 2023
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 191 words used.
- Founded more than a century ago, Hancock Whitney’s brand is rooted in a promise to help individuals, families and businesses protect and grow the financial future they deserve. And as such, we have consistently been recognized by Forbes as one of “America’s Best Banks.”
- But simply being one of America’s best banks was not enough to attract and retain a younger audience - Financial Beginners and Financially Safe Families (between the ages of 25 – 45) - who believed our checking accounts are not competitive with other accounts that charge little to no fees. We were also being significantly outspent by larger national banks. A David to their Goliath.
- Our objective was clear. We needed to create a full funnel campaign that could not only create awareness of Hancock Whitney’s checking products but work downstream, making our target aware that Hancock Whitney:
- has eliminated all NSF fees on all of consumer checking accounts,
- will allow them access to their paycheck up to 2 days early with direct deposit,
- will provide a $10 cushion before an overdraft fee is assessed and
- offers a checking account that has no minimum balance requirement
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 251 words used.
- Creating a full funnel campaign to make current/prospective clients feel confident about whom they are banking with, while appealing to their desires of flexibility and convenience and a “no strings attached” relationship with their bank was easier said than done.
- It also needed to be deployed via a hyper-targeted omni-channel media campaign that could live within a radius of all Hancock Whitney financial centers.
- We identified a powerful, simple way to drive awareness - showing how the word “No” can often be a huge “yes.” Often “no” is a negative word, but in the case of checking accounts from Hancock Whitney, “No” is the kindest thing you can hear.
- This was a brave messaging strategy for a bank given the sensitivity around the word “No”. To ensure this strategy would resonate with clients/prospects, we conducted a separate quantitative survey to evaluate different iterations of the idea of NO being a huge YES. Respondents highly rated the concepts across various metrics, including fit with the brand and attributes that reflect the aspirations of the brand. NO is a Beautiful Thing scored highest on:
- Overall positivity
- Positive emotional reactions
- Conveying the concept description
- Rational response metrics
- It resonated with Gen Z and Millennials, especially those who were risk averse.
- The “NO” messaging was launched as an A/B test to the champion campaign already in market. The results gave us a clear direction. The CTR of the “No” campaign was significantly higher (.58% vs. .5%) as was the engagement rate (130% vs. 88%).
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2022. Even if your initiative started before 2022, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2022 only (up to 250 words):
Total 108 words used.
- “NO is a Beautiful Thing” proved that in the world of banking, a negative can often be a positive thing to Gen Z and Millennials.
- During the campaign, we achieved phenomenal results.
- Ads had a $1.24 CPC with a strong 0.58% CTR, 93% above our benchmarks (Traffic benchmark: 0.30%)
- We reached 364% on our Clicks Goal Progress
- We generated 104M digital impressions.
- Once implemented at 100%, the Freestyle checking lower funnel marketing campaign had a 196% increase in new accounts quarter over quarter.
- Best of all, our campaign directly resulted in 1,357 Freestyle Checking and 133 Priority Checking accounts for $9.8M in balances.
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 23 words used.
Attached are :30 and :15 second videos of the campaign. We have also attached the ad performance, campaign results and paid social results.
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