Increasing Monthly Web Traffic by +65% MoM With a Witty Brand Campaign

Key Takeaways

In May 2021, KOHO introduced "The Museum of BS" (Museum of Bank Stuff) brand campaign designed to generate brand awareness and challenge Canadians to question the traditional banking systems. The creative campaign consists of a humorous video ad that pokes fun at some old-school banking practices and illustrates how outdated banks are. The campaign helped increased KOHO’s monthly web traffic from May to November 2021 by +65%.

• Campaign Creative: The campaign features a tour guide at the "Museum of BS" who shares banking "artifacts". The videos poke fun at other aspects of the financial services industry with signs in the video background, including "The Hall of Hidden Fees" and "The Exhibition of Predatory Loans." The videos end with a CTA promoting KOHO's spending and savings accounts.
• Campaign Launch: The “Museum of BS” campaign launched around the same time that KOHO's announced their "Fight the Fee" promotion. This promotion was in response to the Big 5 Banks' increase in account fees during the pandemic.
• Paid Ad Campaign: KOHO promoted the campaign on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok and display. KOHO spent $788K on these ads between May 2021 and November 2021, accounting for 70% of KOHO’s total ad spend during the time period. KOHO aimed to reach a younger demographic by running the ads on Twitch and TikTok.
• Influencer Campaign: In addition to the paid video ads on TikTok, KOHO partnered with four Canadian creators who created videos that supported the "no BS banking" campaign narrative. These TikTok collaborations led to KOHO be named one of TikTok’s honorary “Culture Driver of 2021”. Videos included skits about how KOHO can save people time and money and testimonials about being a recovering from “big bank client”. These TikTok influencers have an average following over a 1M and mainly share entertaining, educational and lifestyle focused content.
• Recycling Content: In November 2021, KOHO re-launched their “Museum of BS” campaign on Twitter and Instagram. KOHO deleted the original campaign content that was shared in May 2021 from their feed and reshared the “Museum of BS” campaign assets. By recycling this content KOHO allowed for more opportunities for content to be seen and further reinforced its brand messaging.

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In May 2021, the Canadian Fintech brand, KOHO, launched “The Museum of BS” brand campaign by Ogilvy. Although “BS” stands for “Banking Stuff”, the campaign creative was inspired by KOHO’s “non-bullshit banking” principles. The aim of the campaign is to drive brand awareness and connect with Canadian’s who are either “unhappy with the old system, or hadn’t thought to question some of the traditional system’s basic structures”*.

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The campaign creative consists of a humorous video ad that pokes fun at some old-school banking practices and aims to illustrate to the viewer how outdated banks are.

Video Creative:

1. Banking Artifacts - A guide at the “Museum of BS” shares banking “artifacts”, such as a pen on a chain, bank furniture and line dividers to illustrate the outdated nature of banks.
2. Subtle Jabs - Additionally the ad pokes fun at other aspects of the financial services industry with signs in the video background including "The Hall of Hidden Fees" and "The Exhibition of Predatory Loans."
3. Call to Action - The ad ends with a promotion of KOHO's spending and savings accounts, which have no bank fees, instant cash back, 1.2% interest, and the promise of “no BS."

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Additionally, the launch of the “Museum of BS” coincided with KOHO’s launch of their “Fight the Fee” promotion which challenged the Big 5 Banks’ increase in account fees during the pandemic. As part of this promotion, KOHO offered new users up to $30 for costs incurred at other financial institutes.

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Since launching the “Museum of BS” campaign in May 2021, KOHO’s monthly web traffic has increased by a +65% MoM (May 2021 - November 2021). During this time period, mobile traffic has made up 69% of all of KOHO’s web traffic.

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KOHO promoted the campaign on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok and display. The Museum of BS accounted for 70% of its total ad spend (from May 2021-November 2021). In June 2021, ad spend peaked at $653K, with YouTube alone accounting for $548K of KOHO’s total spend.

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YouTube 

$604,000 - Total YouTube ad spend (May ‘21— Nov. ‘21) promoting Museum of BS campaign. KOHO ran 6-second video ads on YouTube featuring the campaign banking artifacts (bank furniture, line dividers, and pen with chain) paired with one of three headlines:

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Spend: $34.6K | Impressions: 2.6M

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Spend: $131K | Impressions: 9.9M

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Spend: $100K | Impressions: 7.6M

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Facebook

$38,600 - Total Facebook ad spend (May ‘21— Nov. ‘21) promoting Museum of BS campaign. KOHO ran the campaign on Facebook video ads which promoted their 1.2% cash back offer. KOHO spent approximately $38.6K on the platform which resulted in an average CPM of $5.83.

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Twitch

$51,700 - Total Twitch ad spend (May ‘21— Nov. ‘21) promoting Museum of BS campaign. In November 2021, KOHO ran the campaign on Twitch as a 20 second homepage headliner video ad. As two-thirds of Twitch's audience is under 34 years old, KOHO utilized the platform to reach a younger demographic and differentiate itself from other financial institutions.

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TikTok

Additionally, KOHO advertised the campaign on TikTok as a video ad* and partnered with four Canadian TikTok creators. These creators shared videos that supported the "no BS banking" campaign narrative. Videos included skits about how KOHO can save people time and money and testimonials about being a recovering from “big bank client”. Campaign Influencers had an average following over 1M and mainly focused on entertaining, educational on lifestyle content.

@topebabalola | Followers: 1.5M | Views: 288K | Engagements: 49K

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@naomileanage | Followers: 474K | Views: 3.8K | Engagements: 400

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@onlinekyne | Followers: 1.1M | Views: 32.7K | Engagements: 3.1K

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@matt_and_omar | Followers: 1.1M | Views: 75.3K | Engagements: 5K

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These TikTok collaborations led to KOHO being named one of TikTok’s honorary “Culture Driver of 2021”. The list celebrates "14 trailblazing brand and creator partnerships” who formed fruitful and fun collaborations on TikTok in 2021.  

Campaign Creators

• @onlinekyne, @topebabalola, @sarafinance, @matt_and_omar & @naomileanage

Creative: Ogilvy

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Recycling Content

Work Smarter, Not Harder- Social media algorithms prioritize relevance over chronological order, making it difficult for branded content to achieve a widespread reach organically. Instead of creating new content, KOHO recycled this content to allow for more opportunities for content to be seen and to help reinforce its brand messaging.

Improved ROI - By re-sharing the “Museum of BS” campaign organically on social, KOHO was able to generate more impressions at no additional cost.

In November 2021, KOHO re-launched their “Museum of BS” campaign on Twitter and Instagram. KOHO deleted the original campaign content that had been shared in May 2021 from their feed and reshared the “Museum of BS” campaign assets. KOHO announced the re-launch with the following posts below:

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