2023 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

TD Canada Trust is one of the biggest banks in Canada, but when it came to attracting young self-directed investors, TD wasn’t making the list. The bank had launched a new investing platform a year earlier, but the campaign didn’t resonate with its broad “Gen Z and Millennial” target audience, despite this demographic jumping into self-directed investing platforms like never before.

To reverse this trend, Leo Burnett had to identify a niche target segment, completely reposition the app and boldly speak in a way that TD had never done before.

Instead of targeting existing investors, the agency identified an untapped segment — aspiring investors — those who wanted to start investing but were hesitantly sitting on the sidelines. To understand them, Leo looked at the barriers that held them back — from knowledge, to cost, to user experience and more. What they learned is that it wasn’t any one specific barrier that held people back, but a more insidious and overarching one that eroded their confidence:

Aspiring young investors don’t see themselves as investors at all, but as spectators to a world they don’t understand.

To show that they truly understood aspiring investors and position TD as having an app that makes investing easy, the team set out to show their target that you don’t need to be an expert to start investing with TD.

The plan was to capture people’s attention on one of the biggest stages in advertising: the Super Bowl.

But first, it had to set the foundation. It renamed the app TD Easy Trade (replacing TD Goal Assist) to signal how easy the app is to use and then soft-launched it with digital and social media to build audience pools.

Two weeks later, it launched at the Super Bowl and online with a big cinematic spot that told the story of a young aspiring investor. Through a dream sequence, the aspiring investor experiences the fast-paced and intimidating world of investing before snapping out of it and realizing how easy it is to actually start investing with
TD Easy Trade. The spot also ran online, retargeting with consideration
and acquisition ads.

When compared to TD’s previous attempt to attract Gen Z and Millennial investors, it increased the average number of daily account openings by 1,031%, doubled the total number of clients in just one month — a number that had previously taken over a year to build, surpassed the new account target for the entire campaign in the same month, and attracted the audience it wanted to reach with 73% of new clients
being Gen Z or Millennials.

Not only did it get aspiring young investors to open an account, but it also got them off the sidelines and investing. Website traffic increased 162%, account funding increased 380%, and daily trades increased 240%.

Credits

Creative Agency: Leo Burnett, Toronto
Client: TD Bank

Creative Agency: Leo Burnett, Toronto
President: Ben Tarr
Chief Creative Officers: Steve Persico, Lisa Greenberg
SVP, Head of Account Management: Natasha Dagenais
Chief Strategy Officer: Tahir Ahmad
VP, Co-Production Director: Melanie Palmer
VP, Co-Production Director: Emma Du Boisson
Senior Copywriter: Evan Wallis
Senior Art Director: Robin Soukvilay
Group Account Director: Kirk Round
VP, Strategy: Ryan Roberts
Senior Producer, Martel & Cie: Josee Lalonde
Copywriter, Martel & Cie: Eric Hebert

Soft Citizen: Production Company
Aircastle : Directors, Soft Citizen, Toronto, Canada
Link York: Exec Producer, Soft Citizen, Toronto, Canada
Eva Preger :Exec Producer, Soft Citizen, Toronto, Canada
Rob Burns : Exec Producer, Soft Citizen, Toronto, Canada
Andrew Graham : Line Producer, Soft Citizen, Toronto, Canada
Peter Simonite : Director of Photography, Soft Citizen, Toronto, Canada

Fort York: Online / VFX
Mike Bishop: Creative Director, Fort York
Melissa Vasiliev: Lead Flame Artist, Fort York
Alex Boothby: Flame Artist, Fort York
Luke White: Flame Artist, Fort York
Abraham Lim: Flame Assistant, Fort York
Davor Celar: Animation Director, Fort York
Pallavi Joshi-Firby: VFX Executive Producers, Fort York

Outsiders : Editorial
Kristina Anzlinger : Exec Producer, Outsider Editorial
Sophia Lou : Editor, Outsider Editorial
Kelsey Dale-McGrath: Assistant editor, Outsider Editorial

Alter Ego : Transfer
Wade Odlum : Colourist, Alter Ego

Pirate : Audio House
Vanya Drakul : Director, Pirate
Maggie Blouin Pearl: Executive Producer, Pirate
Kyle Anderson: Audio Engineer, Pirate
Emery Taylor: Composer, Pirate

Client: TD Bank
Betsey Chung: Executive Vice President, Global Chief Marketing
Officer Michael Letsche: VP Marketing - TD Wealth, PS&I & TDAM
Ryan Kalsi: Senior Group Manager, Marketing
Rakhee Datta: Senior Manager, Marketing