This year, we launched a social-first video series with the goal of sharing real stories and advice by Chase employees to help drive deeper, more meaningful connections amongst colleagues, while also humanizing our brand.
We want Chase to be known as the bank for you – which is why people are always at the heart and center of our stories. In our commitment to celebrate and uplift diverse employees at Chase, we asked a handful of women from across the bank to write letters to the young women in their lives, in honor of International Women’s Day.
Creating this moment had to be organic, which is why we filmed handwritten letters, displaying each woman’s unique penmanship and the power of their words being read aloud. With the goal of driving engagement on our social media channels, we focused on emotional storytelling and prompted our followers to tag a woman they admired in the comments.
We hope the advice in these letters inspire future generations of young women and serve as a reminder that no matter your race, sex, gender, abilities, age, etc. – you are enough. “Take up space wherever you are called to be.”
To bring this idea to life, we knew we were going to have to dig deep and create a safe space for employees to be open and vulnerable.
We also knew that emotionally-driven stories don’t always drive revenue, but they can help build trust. Our goal was to capture the real emotions of our colleagues, while also understanding their purpose and sharing it in a way that would prompt meaningful conversation from our followers.
Through creative brainstorming and strategy workshops, we finalized a letter-style concept, which we believe allowed our talent to process their thoughts while also giving them time to reflect on any unexpected emotions that surfaced while filming.
For content creation, we saw International Women’s Day as a great opportunity for us to lean into a cultural moment/holiday, and amplify the diverse voices of our colleagues. We knew that messaging and tone would be extremely important, which is why we worked across several departments to recruit diverse women from all areas of the bank.
By spotlighting multiple points of view, we believed the advice that was shared could be relevant to connect to a mass, yet diverse audience. To kickstart the project, we focused on securing talent and project resources, locking down schedules and deliverables, and allocating enough time for editing, so the creative process could take place.
Our unique challenge is working within a highly regulated environment. That can sometimes impede on the creative process, due to all the reviews and approvals needed to go live.
For storytelling, we chose to amplify a message of connecting one generation to another, rather than having the women write letters to their younger selves, thinking we could drive a greater emotional response this way. It allowed each woman to write to a real person in their lives versus a younger version of themselves.
For the visual creative, our goal was to come across authentic, without it feeling forced, so we incorporated handwritten letters for each woman to read aloud, which allowed them to speak in a way that was most natural to them.
For greater impact, we also intertwined natural moments in the editing process when some women gave the same advice as another, demonstrating that we all have similar aspirations for the young women in our lives – hoping for them to know their value and to love themselves.
For content amplification, we leveraged Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and a mix of vertical and landscape video formats to meet channel best practices. Our primary channel strategy focused on LinkedIn, since most of our audience represents employees of the company, and our primary talent in the video were Chase employees.
Our video was not only shared on our social media channels, but also through internal communications and newsletters, giving more visibility to these women who deserve to have their voices heard, as well as highlighting the significant importance of International Women’s Day.
“A Love Letter to Women… You Are Enough” integrated well into our team’s content strategy on telling Chase’s story of impact through compelling, human-first storytelling.
Through a multi-channel strategy approach, we leveraged Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, representing our largest audiences (4.61M total followers) to optimize our reach. We also worked with several Chase leaders to amplify this message by sharing it on their personal social media channels.
We considered our efforts to be a success, generating 101K organic impressions, 85K organic plays and 5K organic engagements (478 shares) all from one singular organic post, without paid media tactics to support it. In celebration of International Women’s Day, we believe this video elevated the diverse voices of women at Chase, giving them an externally-facing platform to share their hopes and dreams for future generations of women.
