2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

CHALLENGE
BMO has a strong track record of championing the advancement of women – from the bank’s long standing support of women entrepreneurs through programs like BMO Alliance for Women, to achieving 40% female leadership within the bank itself, to being the first Canadian bank to sign the UN Women Empowerment Principles and a recent commitment to provide $3 billion in capital to women entrepreneurs. In an industry that’s traditionally run by men, for men, BMO stands out as a bank that invests in women.

BMO has set out to fight gender bias in the financial system by addressing the root causes of women’s financial disempowerment. This purpose-driven initiative built an emotional connection in a low engagement category, highlighting a critical need for change.

Success was measured against three key objectives: driving brand recall; driving brand favourability; and driving brand engagement (specifically, push more customers to BMOforWomen.com and increase time spent, as well as increase usage of BMO’s existing hashtag #BMOforWomen).

INSIGHT
Women now control 40% of global wealth – but while they are financially more empowered than ever before, their financial confidence hasn’t kept pace. Women have been culturally primed to believe that they don’t have the knowledge to manage their own financial decisions. The majority (55%) of female investors believe they know less than the average investor, compared to only 27% of male investors. A lack of financial engagement leaves women vulnerable: women are 80% more likely than men to retire in poverty.

To overcome the confidence gap, FCB needed to understand its cause. Social listening made the issue clear; women are surrounded by insidious financial stereotypes such as “trophy wife”, and “gold digger”. Women grow up in a culture that tells them they are bad with money; being served the narrative that women are incapable, and ignorant around finances.

This cultural dynamic defined the strategy; to expose the financial stereotypes that hurt women’s financial confidence in order to rewrite women’s relationships with their finances. Most women experience financial bias, but few are aware of the impact. For International Women’s Day, BMO started a conversation that was long overdue, telling the story of one woman’s lifelong experiences with negative cultural programming and its end result. This story told every woman’s story.

EXECUTION
The campaign launched with the film, Jane’s Story, which shows how a lifetime of negative stereotyping erodes a woman’s confidence with money. Jane’s Story spotlights seemingly small moments to demonstrate their cumulative impact. Then the video flips the script, showing that if we can #bankruptthebias, we can help dismantle the myth that women are bad with money and build women’s confidence.
Short-format videos highlighted these labels in a social-first way, and the campaign was amplified by women financial influencers.

The next phase was to change the biased narrative that all women encounter. The agency launched a series of GIFs to rewrite biased language, empowering women to change the conversation. To create a real, lasting effect, the team created a petition to remove gendered definitions from the dictionary.

RESULTS
By starting to rewrite the bias that holds women back from financial empowerment, BMO built an emotionally charged, purpose-driven campaign that far exceeded its goals.

The campaign generated 90MM+ impressions and tracked 50MM views of Jane videos. Brand favourability increased by 7.1 pts (compared to financial norm of +0.7 pts), with 99.3% positive/neutral social sentiment.

It also drove 83,400 customers to BMOForWomen.com, a 348% increase in visits compared to the campaign objective. And 42% of users spent more than 15 seconds on the campaign’s content page, up from 33% during last year’s campaign. There was also a 109% increase in the use of #BMOforWomen compared to the 2019 campaign.

Credits

Client: BMO
Head, Marketing and Strategy: Catherine Roche
VP North American Brand & Social Media: Jennifer Carli
Director, Brand Advertising: Shelley Johnsen
Manager, Brand Management & Enterprise Marketing: Kaleigh MacMaster

Creative Agency: FCB Canada
Chief Creative Officers: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna and Jeff Hilts
Group Creative Directors: Andrew McPhee & Jeremiah McNama
Associate Creative Director: Elma Karabegovic
Copywriter: Shannon McCarroll
Broadcast Producer: Anne-Marie Martignago
EVP, General Manager: Tracy Little
VP, Group Account Director: Erin Howes
Account Director: Allison Lochhead
Account Supervisor: Ali Gayowski
Project Manager: Camille vanGroll
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Planning Director: Eryn LeMesurier

Production Company: Untitled Films
Director: Hubert Davis
Executive Producer: Peter Davis
Line Producer: Trudy Turner
DOP: Kiel Milligan

Editorial: Rooster Post Production
Editor: Michelle Czukar
Executive Producer: Samantha MacLaren

Post Production: Alter Ego
Colourist: Eric Whipp
Flame Artist: Darren Achim

Music: Apollo
Music Director/Composer - Apollo: Daenen Bramberger
Executive Producer - Apollo: Tom Hutch

Casting: Shasta Lutz, Jigsaw Casting

Media Agency: UM
VP Client Business Partner: Kate Mateer
Group Director: Tim Davies
Director, Connection Planning: Katey Gault
Account Manager: Rachel Pearson
Campaign Manager, Social: Alex Perkes
Director, Performance: Hailey Smith
Associate Director, Programmatic Strategy: Isaac Bunn
Senior Associate, Campaign Manager: Sai Dubakka