Chase Beat the Banking Norms With Inspiring Ad

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The World Cup may be over but football never ends, and back at the grassroots level there are teams training, learning and enjoying the game. Six thousand of those teams have coaches whose qualifications are funded by Chase, the digital bank that launched in the UK in 2021 and have become one of the fastest-growing brands in the consumer banking sector. And Chase’s efforts in supporting grassroots football are the focus of its newest ad with agency Droga5.

So it’s an old school Community Impact ad, right? Not quite. The ad has found an inspiring and resonant theme that puts the spotlight on why coaching is so valuable, rather than simply explaining what the bank is doing. The lessons you learn from a great coach don’t just apply on the pitch – they follow you home, and into work, and help you become a better leader too.

The ad shows how a coach’s team talk resonates and improves her players’ lives. The discipline, teamwork and skills they learn playing football are helpful in all kinds of situations, and in overcoming all kinds of problems. And only once that’s been fully established and an emotional response earned does the ad reveal Chase’s work funding those coaching qualifications that make it all possible.

This inspiring, emotional approach helps Chase win in an advertising sector that isn’t known for feelgood commercials. On Test Your Ad Pro, the ad scores 4.0-Stars with a nationally representative audience. It does even better with Chases’ target segments, but that 4-Star score is still enough to put it in the top 3% of commercial banking ads among the general public. Short-term Spike Rating and Brand Fluency (rapid and accurate recognition) are also good, and above the Banking norm.

The ad works so well because it focuses so fully on the human. It’s full of human connections through glances, gestures and dialogue – what Orlando Wood in his book Look Out calls “between-ness”. Between-ness is proven to be an element associated with long-term ad effectiveness, and this ad about teamwork and resilience thrives on it.

Looking at the diagnostics in the Test Your Ad Pro results reveals even more positive signals for Chase. The brand name is the top key association for the audience, and the demographic indicators suggest the ad is hitting especially strongly for the youngest age group (18-34 year olds) who are exactly the people likely to be starting their consumer banking journey. Ads which star young people don’t always appeal to young people. But Chase and Droga5 have put together a piece of communication that feels realistic about the challenges but supportive and inspiring about facing them.