Marcus Mariota, I Know A Guy | Clapboard Ad Archive

Priceless Surprises with Camila Cabello - MasterCard | Clapboard Ad Archive

Priceless Surprises with Camila Cabello is a 2019 campaign for MasterCard that leverages the global appeal of the singer to reinforce the brand’s iconic Priceless platform through emotionally charged storytelling and strategic celebrity endorsement within the finance sector. By centering the campaign on Camila Cabello, MasterCard taps into a younger, experience-driven demographic, positioning itself not merely as a transactional service but as a conduit for meaningful, memorable moments that transcend everyday payments. The campaign’s single film asset unfolds through authentic, real-life scenarios where unexpected joy and surprise underline the brand’s commitment to enriching consumer lives, a thematic evolution of MasterCard’s long-established narrative that value lies beyond the monetary exchange. This aligns with Clapboard’s FORMAT#8 ONGOING CHARACTERS OR CELEBRITIES classification, where the presence of a recurring personality fuels brand recall and audience engagement by creating aspirational, shareable content that encourages emotional connection and consumer loyalty. The campaign’s use of film as a medium maximizes storytelling potential, blending relatable human moments with the star power of Camila Cabello to enhance brand affinity and inspire viewers to associate MasterCard with exclusive experiences and social currency. The creative approach eschews a direct product demonstration or problem-solution dynamic, instead relying on the celebrity’s cultural resonance to generate excitement and amplify the Priceless Surprises theme, which reinforces MasterCard’s strategic communication goal of deepening consumer engagement through emotional narrative rather than functional messaging. The campaign earns 60/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. Priceless Surprises with Camila Cabello matters to the finance category because it demonstrates how brands in traditionally transactional industries can effectively use celebrity-driven storytelling to humanize financial services and cultivate emotional loyalty among younger audiences.

You & Me, The Crew, The Kids Are Alright - Capital One | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

You & Me, The Crew, The Kids Are Alright - Capital One | Clapboard Ad Archive

You & Me, The Crew, The Kids Are Alright is a 2018 campaign for Capital One created by DDB that stakes a claim in the finance sector by focusing on the deeply human elements of connection and community as drivers of financial confidence. The campaign unfolds through three film assets that depict everyday financial moments experienced by families, friend groups, and individuals, weaving a narrative that emphasizes trust and partnership without resorting to celebrity endorsements or overt problem-solution storytelling. This approach aligns with what Clapboard classifies as FORMAT#10 ASSOCIATED USER IMAGERY, where the power lies in showing target audiences their own lives reflected back to them, creating resonance through relatable characters and scenarios rather than aspirational fantasy or dramatized conflict. Capital One’s messaging hinges on the idea that financial security is a collective journey, akin to a close-knit crew or family navigating challenges and milestones together, thereby humanizing a category often perceived as impersonal or intimidating. The films balance emotional warmth with pragmatic clarity, making financial products feel accessible and relevant to everyday users while subtly reinforcing the brand’s commitment to supporting these varied social units. Visually rich storytelling combined with authentic sound design produces a dynamic brand experience that differentiates Capital One in a crowded marketplace where trust and reliability are key purchase drivers. The campaign’s focus on ordinary moments and diverse audiences underscores a strategic shift in finance advertising toward inclusivity and emotional intelligence, sidestepping traditional hard-sell tactics in favor of fostering lasting affinity and brand recall. Capital One’s collaboration with DDB evidences a sophisticated understanding of how narrative can elevate financial services by embedding them within the texture of real life. Clapboard rates this campaign 63/100. This campaign matters to the industry because it demonstrates how finance brands can build trust and emotional engagement by embracing the complexity of everyday relationships, even as they operate within a category defined by abstraction and regulation.

Feelings - SAP | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Feelings - SAP | Clapboard Ad Archive

SAP’s Feelings campaign, crafted by BBDO for the United States finance sector in 2019, redefines the discourse around Experience Management by positioning emotional intelligence as the cornerstone of future business success. The campaign’s central film, titled The Future of Business Has Feelings: SAP XM - Experience Management, employs a metaphorical narrative to illustrate how companies can harness emotional insights to deepen connections with customers and employees alike, thereby transforming transactional relationships into meaningful engagements. Rather than showcasing SAP’s technology through conventional demonstrations or direct problem-solution storytelling, the film uses a symbolic approach that aligns with Clapboard’s FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, where abstract visual metaphors embody the challenge of businesses lacking emotional awareness. This creative choice amplifies the intangible nature of feelings within the traditionally data-driven finance industry, making the invisible impact of emotional insight tangible and urgent. By inviting audiences to explore this concept further through a dedicated SAP URL, the campaign bridges cutting-edge business technology with the human empathy necessary for thriving in a rapidly evolving market landscape. The film’s language and symbolism work in tandem to elevate SAP’s positioning as an innovator that leverages data not just for efficiency or analytics but to fundamentally reshape how businesses understand and respond to human experience. The campaign’s 68/100 Clapboard Campaign Score reflects its solid creative execution and strategic clarity in communicating a complex, often overlooked aspect of business transformation. This campaign matters because it signals a shift in finance advertising towards integrating emotional intelligence into technology narratives, demonstrating that empathy is no longer optional but essential for competitive advantage in Experience Management.

Don't Get Robbed by Your Bank - The Sketch Artist, Don't ... - Axos Bank | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Don't Get Robbed by Your Bank - The Sketch Artist, Don't ... - Axos Bank | Clapboard Ad Archive

Axos Bank’s 2019 campaign Don't Get Robbed by Your Bank - The Sketch Artist, created by Cutwater, stakes a bold claim in the crowded U.S. financial services market by portraying traditional banking fees as a form of theft, positioning Axos as the customer-friendly alternative that prioritizes transparency and value. This film campaign leverages Clapboard’s FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem—by eschewing direct depictions of banking frustrations in favor of a metaphorical narrative where a sketch artist, a classic emblem of crime investigation, visually reconstructs the “robbery” committed by hidden fees and punitive charges imposed by legacy banks. The narrative cleverly anthropomorphizes abstract financial grievances into a tangible crime scenario, making complex banking issues immediately relatable and emotionally resonant. Cutwater’s storytelling frames Axos Bank’s lower fees and higher savings as the antidote to this systemic problem, encapsulated crisply in the campaign’s tagline, Don't get robbed by your bank, which doubles as both a consumer warning and a brand promise. The campaign’s strategic use of social media under the #BankingEvolved banner extends this message beyond the film assets, fostering consumer engagement through educational content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, while driving traffic to Axos Bank’s blog for deeper exploration of its innovative offerings. This integrated approach reinforces Axos Bank’s positioning as a progressive disruptor that empowers customers to make smarter financial decisions, countering entrenched skepticism about banks with a transparent, customer-first ethos. The campaign’s three distinct media assets work synergistically to maintain momentum and broaden reach, enabling a sustained dialogue that elevates Axos from mere financial service provider to trusted partner in financial wellbeing. Clapboard rates this campaign 57/100 in its global creative archive. This campaign matters to the finance category because it demonstrates how metaphor-driven storytelling can reframe complex industry pain points into compelling brand narratives that resonate with digitally savvy consumers seeking clarity and control.

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Mad World - Wealthsimple | Clapboard Ad Archive

Mad World from Wealthsimple, launched in the United States during the high-stakes media environment of 2017’s Super Bowl, sets out to dismantle finance’s most paralyzing barrier: the sense that investing is a chaotic, alienating ordeal best left to industry insiders. In a category notorious for jargon and exclusion, the campaign leverages a film asset that translates the abstract complexity of traditional investing into visceral, symbolic scenarios that evoke anxiety and confusion, forging an emotional connection with viewers who may have felt frozen out by the world of wealth management. What Clapboard’s taxonomy would classify as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem, the work doesn’t catalog specific financial anxieties but rather conjures an entire landscape of confusion, using the evocative title and Super Bowl placement to reinforce the scope and urgency of the issue facing would-be investors. Wealthsimple’s value proposition—globally diversified, low-cost portfolios shaped by Nobel-winning research, and the security of oversight by a storied institutional backer in Power Financial Corp.—is distilled into a single, clear message at the heart of the film: investing is complicated, but Wealthsimple makes it simple. With a national broadcast moment that captured the attention of millions and a sustained life online—where the campaign amassed almost 6.8 million views—Wealthsimple transcended standard category conventions, using mass reach to position itself as both an innovator and a reassuring partner to mainstream consumers. Rather than lecture or sell, the brand invites—signposting a website for those newly emboldened or curious, reframing the act of investing as the province of everyone, not just the financial elite. For a sector mired in perceived opacity, the campaign’s creative discipline and emotional intelligence help reposition the brand as an antidote to complexity without sacrificing sophistication, signaling a maturation of investor-facing communications for the fintech segment. Clapboard rates this 72/100. For the finance industry, Mad World endures as a statement on the value of emotional symbolism to reframe deeply entrenched consumer anxieties even in the most crowded of advertising arenas.

One Step. Endless Possibilities. - HSBC | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

One Step. Endless Possibilities. - HSBC | Clapboard Ad Archive

HSBC’s 2017 campaign One Step. Endless Possibilities. is a sharp testament to the power of symbol-laden messaging in the banking and finance sector, demonstrating how strategic brand alignment can leverage a simple metaphor to profound effect. Developed by JWT for the UAE market, the campaign pivots around the core idea that meaningful progress — personal or financial — begins with a single, committed action, positioning HSBC as the essential partner in that first, potentially life-changing step. Distinct from testimonial-based, narrative, or problem-solution constructions, the creative eschews granular plot or customer focus in favor of an open, aspirational gesture: the first step becomes a visual and conceptual stand-in for the boundless opportunity HSBC promises to help unlock. This approach, which Clapboard’s 12-format taxonomy designates as FORMAT#9 — Symbolize the Benefit, harnesses the universal currency of ambition and transformation through elegant visual metaphor, inviting viewers to project their own aspirations onto the canvas the brand provides. By rooting its message in possibility, reflected across both film execution and campaign messaging, HSBC sidesteps banking’s traditional jargon and transactional reassurances, instead offering a narrative of empowerment that foregrounds emotion over product specifics. The call to action extends this emotional framing into the practical realm, urging audiences to engage with HSBC’s dedicated UAE platform and explore offerings designed to turn intention into achievement. In bypassing direct problem-solution or evidence-led claims, the film’s appeal operates less on showing outcomes than on sparking the internal resolve to begin, which aligns with a global wave of category campaigns that frame the bank not merely as a service provider but as an enabler of human potential. Clapboard rates this 58/100. For an industry often constrained by functional messaging and disclosure-heavy creative, HSBC’s campaign signals an appetite for emotional resonance at scale, showing peers that symbolism can create meaningful differentiation without sacrificing clarity.

Lost Wallet - Atlantic Credit Unions | Clapboard Ad Archive — archive collection thumbnail

Lost Wallet - Atlantic Credit Unions | Clapboard Ad Archive

Atlantic Credit Unions' Lost Wallet campaign, developed in partnership with Accomplice Content Supply and National Public Relations, stands as a rare instance of experiential marketing in the Canadian finance sector that trades on transparency and lived proof rather than industry platitudes. Seeking to bridge the credibility gap between credit unions’ foundational values and the real-world behaviors of Atlantic Canadians, the 2018 initiative seeded a dozen fully loaded wallets — complete with cash, cards, receipts, and a contact number — across multiple locations in the region to see whether communal claims of honesty, trust, and fairness would survive contact with unmonitored opportunity. The method eschews crafted narratives and fictionalised testimonials for a straight test of human behavior, an approach that sits squarely within Clapboard’s FORMAT#1 — Demonstration taxonomy, which privileges campaigns that show, not tell, how a brand promise performs when subjected to scrutiny. With a single documentary-style asset and well over 300,000 public views, Lost Wallet trades the abstraction typical of finance advertising for an emotionally infectious social experiment — reducing trust and ethical banking from marketing slogans to measurable, relatable acts. This tactic does not attempt to out-innovate the digital convenience arms race led by rivals like RBC and TD, nor does it depend on the global cosmopolitanism that powers brands like Scotiabank; instead, it doubles down on the regionally specific pride, community cohesion, and the cooperative philosophy of the credit union itself. By executing a campaign where the audience’s everyday decisions become the litmus test for the brand’s most prized attributes, Atlantic Credit Unions differentiates against both the technological bravado of incumbent banks and the procedural virtue-signaling sometimes associated with smaller players. The campaign, targeted overtly at Atlantic Canadians, strengthens the brand’s position as a trusted, community-first alternative in a hyper-competitive category, and it signals to the industry a shift in consumer engagement from passive message reception to active, public participation in social proof. Clapboard rates this 73/100. For a financial brand to relinquish narrative control and put its institutional claims quite literally in the hands of the public, Lost Wallet demonstrates the power of open-ended demonstration as both a test and testament of brand authenticity.

Campaign Proposition

The campaign "Marcus Mariota, I Know A Guy" positions First Hawaiian Bank as a trusted and accessible financial partner, emphasizing personalized service and reliable expertise. By associating the bank with Marcus Mariota, a recognizable sports figure, the campaign seeks to build credibility and familiarity while reinforcing the notion that First Hawaiian Bank is the “go-to” institution for wise financial decisions. The underlying brand proposition is centered on trust, personalized connections, and confidence in investment choices, suggesting that customers who bank with First Hawaiian have an insider advantage through expert guidance. Strategically, the campaign leverages the narrative genre to create a relatable and engaging story that humanizes financial services, distancing the brand from the typical impersonal banking image. Using Marcus Mariota functions as a cultural touchpoint, likely aiming to establish authenticity and build emotional resonance with both local and broader audiences who respect or identify with the athlete. The campaign subtly targets individuals seeking trustworthy financial advice, emphasizing investment wisdom in a way that feels approachable rather than transactional. The creative angle of “I Know A Guy” implies insider knowledge and informal access, tapping into the insight that consumers value personal connections and expert support when it comes to managing their finances. This narrative-driven approach attempts to position First Hawaiian Bank not just as a financial institution, but as a resource that facilitates smart investment decisions through trusted relationships.

Creative Device

FORMAT#8 ONGOING CHARACTERS OR CELEBRITIES — Uses a recurring personality or celebrity for brand recall. This campaign is best classified as FORMAT#8 because the title and description prominently feature Marcus Mariota, a well-known celebrity athlete, in collaboration with First Hawaiian Bank. The campaign leverages his recognizability and implied trustworthiness (“I Know A Guy”) to humanize the brand and foster recall. Although the narrative genre suggests some story structure, the creative device relies primarily on celebrity endorsement rather than a classic story arc or overt problem–solution framing, centering on Mariota as a brand ambassador. ADVERTISING FORMATS EXPLAINED: https://www.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/brand-strategy/12-advertising-creative-formats

Competitive Planks

Bank of Hawaii – As another leading regional bank in Hawaii, Bank of Hawaii positions itself as a community-focused institution emphasizing personalized service, local knowledge, and long-term customer relationships, blending modern banking with strong cultural ties to the islands.

Wells Fargo – A national banking giant, Wells Fargo differentiates through its extensive branch and ATM network, broad financial products, and digital banking innovation, targeting both local customers and wider U.S. markets with convenience and comprehensive financial solutions.

American Savings Bank – Positioned as Hawaii’s largest locally owned bank, American Savings Bank emphasizes community involvement, personalized service, and competitive financial products tailored to Hawaii residents, fostering trust and reliability through deep local roots.

U.S. Bank – U.S. Bank differentiates by combining national scale with regional adaptability, offering robust digital banking services, diverse lending options, and business banking expertise, targeting customers seeking both convenience and advanced financial tools.

Bank of America – With its strong national presence and advanced digital capabilities, Bank of America focuses on delivering innovative technology, extensive financial products, and global resources, appealing to customers in Hawaii who value convenience and comprehensive service offerings.