Why Envestnet used SpongeBob’s Mr Krabs to take fintech to a wider audience
HeyLet’sGo won at The Drum Awards for B2B 2022 in the Chair Award, Best Corporate or Brand Website and Best Product Launch awards for its Mr Krabs’ Fictional Finances campaign on behalf of Envestnet. Here's why it caught the judges’ eye.
Mr. Krabs' notorious financial savvy provided the hook for an award-winning B2B campaign
Children (and young adults) will recognize Mr Krabs from the ever-popular Spongebob Squarepants cartoon. But his reputation as a savvy businessman and focus on squirreling money away in chests allowed the character to speak to audiences beyond just cartoon fans.
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The brief
Envestnet is a global fintech platform that has recently undergone a reinvention with a raft of new tools and features. Given the rebrand and the crowded nature of the fintech space, the company needed to build awareness and interest for its new client portal - while continuing to support its core mission of helping advisors make an 'intelligent financial life' a reality.
Given that the fintech sector is filled with marketing tropes and product detail that is frequently overwhelming, Envestnet needed a way to spark viewers’ interest in the platform.
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The idea
HeyLet’sGo reasoned that an eye-catching partnership with a recognizable IP would help cut through the noise. To that end it scoured past episodes of the popular Spongebob cartoon to find storylines that illustrated Mr Krabs’ issues that could be solved using its tools: expensing for a small business, managing cash flow and investments line-by-line.
The team then made a three-minute film, three TV commercials, and around 20 pieces of web content featuring the character. All the creative drove financial advisors to the interactive experience, where they could explore the financial impact of five different scenarios to see how they could make an intelligent financial life a reality for their clients.
The results
The campaign, as attention-grabbing as it is, managed to deliver significant uplift for Envestnet. 96% of visitors viewed the complete demo experience, while 51% of visitors requested more information about how Envestnet could help them with some of the issues faced by Mr Krabs in the provided materials. Its average time on site rose to over four minutes, demonstrating the inherent value of a creative idea for generating tangible returns.
This campaign was a winner at The Drum B2B Awards 2022. The full list of winners can be found here. The Drum Awards for Marketing are currently open for entry. Find out how you can enter now.