People dislike traditional banks. And for good reason. They’ve historically taken advantage of everyday people by charging punitive fees and are out of touch with their needs. Chime aims to change that.
We are a financial technology company, not a bank, on a mission to unlock financial progress™ for everyday people – many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. In doing so, we are disrupting the financial services industry and dismantling outdated systems that no longer work for the people we serve.
At Chime, we set out to challenge not just banking services, but how financial institutions communicate with their communities. Central to our success is our use of social media to authentically connect with our community. As a digital-first brand, social is the soul of Chime.
We’ve aimed to make personal finance less intimidating and more accessible, while building genuine connections through cultural relevance and authentic engagement. Most ambitiously, we seek to transform how Americans engage with financial content on social media. Rather than treating our platforms as mere marketing channels, we envisioned them as community spaces where members find both practical financial guidance and cultural relevance. Our goal has been to prove that a financial brand can maintain industry credibility while speaking in a voice that reflects how real people talk about money, targeting engagement rates comparable to entertainment and lifestyle brands rather than traditional financial institutions.
To win in social, we are relentlessly focused on a few key things:
1. We aim to make personal finance less intimidating for our members and our target audience. On social, as in life, we are in it with our members - we don’t talk at or down to them. No “corporate jargon,” “stock image speak,” or unnecessarily complex financial terms in any of our channels. We break down concepts like budgeting, savings, and credit-building in a way that everyday Americans will pay attention to, and will understand.
2. We don’t treat our community like a monolith — we connect to sub-cultures and niches that make our community unique. We win in the “sub cultures” that are most important to our members — Sports, Music, and Fashion being 3 of the biggest sub-cultural areas.
3. Instead of renting culture, we look for partnerships that embody our mission. Consumers can see through the “rent a celeb” culture. We create multi-year brand-partnerships with people like Marshawn Lynch who our members love, to more targeted ones like Zach King who has over 80 Million followers and is one of TikTok’s biggest stars.
By reflecting consumers' concerns within the social channels at the moment they’re most receptive, this organic, authentic, community-first approach drove tangible business results and earned us recognition on TIME's World's Best Brands List. We are one of the most followed financial brands on Instagram with 1.1M+ followers, and have 3X higher engagement rate on content vs. financial services benchmarks, 3.5X as many IG followers as megabanks like BoA and Chase, and 2X as many IG followers as cult-fave fast food restaurant Popeyes. In addition, consistently trend #1 on X with our #WhyIChime® Member Activations - and usually within the first 15 minutes of launching!
Our 2024 creator partnerships delivered breakthrough impact across multiple campaigns. The overall strategy generated 764M+ total social views, an 87% increase in social engagement YoY, through strategic collaborations with cultural leaders like Kai Cenat, Fanum, T-Pain, Keith Lee, Wayne Brady, and WNBA stars.
Through social media, we aren’t just changing how financial brands communicate — we’re reimagining how they can educate, engage, and empower their communities.
Chime® is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC.
