Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are a $4 trillion industry, and though they’re generally considered to be a safe, predictable investment, not much more is known about them, particularly among Millennial investors. iShares by BlackRock wanted to shift investors from awareness to consideration—and drive engagement with iShares ETFs.
Though Millennials largely share the same financial goals as older generations, Millennials are slower to invest. Many are also unclear what ETFs are or why they are dynamic, progressive investment options — and how they can play an important role in portfolios in unexpected ways. To take the trepidation out of investing and add some humor, we enlisted Saturday Night Live alum Sasheer Zamata and BlackRock executives to give a literal A-to-Z education on the benefits of iShares ETFs — with charm.
Our program, Fund Your Vision, combined data visualizations, storytelling and videos, creating a site that featured 26 individual pieces of content — one for each letter of the alphabet — walking investors through the unique value and utility of ETFs. The execution was ambitious:
8 explainer videos with Sasheer Zamata
8 short-form descriptions
6 GIFs and data visualizations
4 conversational videos with BlackRock executives
Fund Your Vision helped make iShares ETFs more approachable and showed iShares’ potential as a partner to financial advisors and investors to achieving financial goals.
The program has surpassed WSJ benchmarks for video completion rate and scroll depth, and page views were pacing at 173% to the goal midway through the campaign. Combined with above-benchmark click-through rates—which speak to readers and viewers discovering the program through WSJ and social channels—we’re seeing users seek out Fund Your Vision and stay there to digest the content.