How Servus & Scotiabank are Driving Brand Salience in 2023

To assess Scotiabank’s and Servus’ increasing brand salience from Q1 F23 to Q3 F23, the following channels have been identified as growth drivers:

• ‍Paid Social Strategies. How Servus & Scotiabank are spending on Top Funnel ads.
• ‍Partnerships. How Servus & Scotiabank are expanding visibility to sports such as NHL.
• ‍Organic Social. Top-performing organic & boosted content themes on TikTok.

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For the activations analyzed in this report, here are 4 defining factors used to identify an awareness campaign:

• ‍Focused on brand-building. Content was not product-focused but brand-focused.
• ‍Encourages positive sentiment. Content that gives back (i.e. contests).
• ‍Looks outside of the financial field. Bank campaigns that take place independent of financial activities (i.e. sports partnerships with the NHL).
• ‍Brand reach. Content with high views and impression reach that resonate with audiences to help them learn more about finances, without talking about products.

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Key Takeaways

Servus championed its local communities by giving back through its Big Share Contest on which it spent $37K in digital advertising.

• Recommendations
  (i) Create contests with emotional messaging that inspires viewers to dream about how they will use the prize.
  (ii) Make contesting user-friendly with your clients enrolled by default. Servus members are automatically enrolled in the Big Share Contest by having bank accounts with Servus. 
  (iii) Involve your local community directly by making your contest eligible to members or new members only.

Scotiabank used paid ads to support diversity through its Women Initiative ($159K) and children’s The Hockey Jersey book ($121K).  

• Recommendations
  (i) Connect with audiences by showcasing your understanding of their challenges and are helping to offer a solution. Scotiabank’s Women Initiative offers resources such as articles, podcasts and webinars to help women increase their economic and professional opportunities for success. 
  (ii) Support diversity, equity and inclusion through the initiatives you put paid advertising behind. The Hockey Jersey pairs patriotism with inclusion by telling the story of children of colour and their journey into the very Canadian sport of hockey. 
  (iii) Partner with athletes or notable people whose brand aligns with yours to boost your reach.

Scotiabank partnered with NHL Hockey and generated 6.8M views across organic media using a mixture of contesting and community messaging. 

• Recommendations
  (i) Enter strategic sport partnerships that will boost your brand favorability such as partnering with the NHL.
  (ii) Use contesting and community content to generate engagement and excite audiences about your brand. 
  (iii) Sponsor local teams to connect with local communities and extend your reach on social media.
  (iv) Boost your organic posts to increase engagement on posts that are receiving high organic engagement. 

Scotiabank used social media to generate 27M in video views across its top content themes on TikTok from January 2023 - September 2023. 

• Recommendations
  (i) Use TikTok to reach a younger audience and share tips for students and people new to money management.
  (ii) Create content that is educational but in a casual tone so it feels more organic to audiences. 
  (iii) Topics should cover money education, budgeting and career planning. Videos can use their captions to link to resources you have available or show key takeaways. 
  (iv) Partner with creators who have different content styles to expand your reach beyond your usual audience. 

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The top channels for paid creative were Facebook (39% of ad spend) and Instagram (29% of ad spend) for Servus in 2023.

Servus started advertising on TikTok and YouTube and stopped Paid Search advertising YoY in 2023.

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Top and Mid funnel advertising accounted for 97% of Servus Credit Union's creative from January to September 2023.

The largest campaign they had was their Big Share Contest which represents 42% of their 2023 ad budget. 

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The top channels for the Big Share Contest were TikTok (46%) and Facebook (32%) in 2023.

TikTok was the main driver for Big Share Advertising in 2023. 

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Servus allocated 37K (42% of the total budget) towards their Big Share Contest in 2023.

It decreased its spend by 730% from 2022 which was previously $307K towards the contest. 

Ad & Landing Page Tactics:

• The Big Share Contest offers $1 million to Servus members who are automatically entered based on how much money they are keeping in their bank accounts.  
• Ads feature an overview of the prize offered and invites viewers to imagine what they would do with their winnings.
• The ad creative and landing page are brand focused, sharing the sentiment “feel good about your money” and profiling previous Big Share winners.
• This campaign and the podcast campaign were the only brand-oriented campaigns for Servus. Other paid advertising focusing on product offerings. 

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Servus is sponsoring local curling teams for the World Curling Championships. 

The only post Servus made about curling was cross-posted to Facebook and Instagram on April 5th, 2023.

Engagements 39 

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Servus spent 5% of its ad budget promoting its Open Money Podcast.
The podcast was launched in March 2023 with paid ads. During this time site traffic saw a +18% increase. 

Ad & Landing Page Tactics:

• Ads feature a static image but audio clips from the podcast are used to entice viewers to listen further. 
• ‍Open Money is an educational podcast that helps increase Servus’ brand equity by going beyond financial education to explore the intersection of finance and mental health. 
• Podcast topics relate finances to relevant social issues important to Canadians such as indigenous rights. 
• The landing page features links to financial and mental health articles and the Open Money podcast for users to easily navigate topics of interest. 

Total Campaign Spend $4.1K | Imp. 1.1M | CPM. $3.84

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Searches for “scotiabank hockey” saw +8% increase in interest YoY.

Google Search interest often only ranks for broad searches like “hockey”, having a branded search rank is rare.

A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term. 

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Prioritize TikTok for social & partnership initiatives. Content on this channel represented 89% of the total views and engagements.

Scotiabank posted 72 videos on social media from January - September 2023 about their Hockey initiatives - that’s 8 posts per month! 

Data range is Jan. 2023-Sep 2023. Views for Twitter and Instagram unavailable.

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Use local ambassadors to share how you’re making an impact, educate viewers on finances and host giveaways.

Scotiabank’s Hockey initiatives generate the most engagement on content about community support and contests.

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Offer financial tips through ambassadors & host giveaways.

Tactics:

• ‍Keep content organic. Scotiabank’s top-performing organic content always starts with someone talking directly to the camera. 
• Tie the purpose of the video back to your brand’s pillars or interests that you’re investing in. For example, being excited to share a love for hockey while sharing financial tips.
• Use giveaway terms to focus on growth and engagement on one social media channel. All contest posts were predominantly posted on Instagram or TikTok. 
• Boost posts with spend for a broader reach.

Community Support

Views 1.1M | Engagements 3K

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Contests & Giveaways

Views 486K | Engagements 7.4K | Spend $200 | Impressions 51K

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Sponsor local leagues to get extended organic social media coverage. 

Tactics:

• Sportsnet has generated 4.4M views and engagements across all social media posts for Scotiabank from January to September 2023. 
• Scotiabank hosts a “Wednesday Night Hockey” segment with Sportsnet, that guarantees content tags for highlights shared during those games.
• Since Hockey News doesn’t perform as well for Scotiabank’s owned channels, this gives them a platform to reach avid hockey fans as well. 

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Instagram was the top channel (57% of spend) for top-of-funnel paid creative in 2023.

The top paid ad campaigns for top of funnel were the Hockey Jersey and Scotia Women Initiative in 2023. 

Measured using the top 100 ads from Jan. to Sept. 2022 and Jan. to Sept. 2023

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The top channels for The Hockey Jersey advertising campaign were Facebook (42%) and Instagram (32%).

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Scotiabank created  a children’s book, The Hockey Jersey in 2023.

Ad and Landing Page Tactics:

• Scotiabank promoted The Hockey Jersey using paid advertising across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Display. 
• Scotiabank partnered with NHL player and activist, Akim Aliu to promote The Hockey Jersey and its inspiring message of diversity and inclusion. 
• The landing page shares an emotional message about the book along with links for purchase of physical and digital copies. 

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The top channels for the Scotia Women Initiative advertising campaign was Instagram (68% of impressions).

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The Scotia Women Initiative provides resources for women to succeed financially.

Ad and Landing Page Tactics:

• The landing page is a one stop hub that provides resources for women such as articles, podcasts and webinars.
• The ad creative inspires women to be the best version of themselves and invites them into the community. 
• Content in the Scotia Women Initiative goes beyond financial advice to show that Scotiabank cares about its customers beyond their business. 

Link to this video creative was not available, the landing page is linked instead.

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Create content geared to support students on their financial journeys.

Scotiabank is posting organic content on TikTok and boosting it with additional ad spend to target the Gen Z audience.

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Student Tips

Create content to address the typical anxieties students face throughout their degrees.

Tactics:

• Provide a healthy mix of tips that are related to external things students can do to save money as well as products you offer that are tailored to them. 
• Post a video and see if it starts to gain traction. Then boost it with a little extra ad spend, especially if the content features a current promotion.
• Top-performing student videos specifically focus on three tips for students. 
• Keep videos under 60 seconds.

Views 4.5M | Engagements 4.4K | Spend $500 | Impressions 151K

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Views 4.2M | Engagements 1.5K | Spend $1.9K | Impressions 535K

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Money 101

Be a source of education on all things financial. 

• While a typical content bucket, Scotiabank has been focusing on it with 23 posts from January to September 2023 (~23% of the top 100 performing social posts).
• Keep videos to 45-50 seconds and use green screens with additional text to help tell your story.

Views 1.6M | Engagement 4.5K | Spend $49 | Impressions 14K 

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Scotiabank on the Street

Ask Canadians directly about their financial challenges & wins.

• TikTokers love seeing real people’s reactions to questions, especially if it’s about relatable content to their own finances.
• ‍Be visible at Canadian events to talk to people about money, their biggest challenges and wins when it comes to saving or investing money.

Views 812K | Engagement 2K 

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Money News

Be the voice of financial news for Canada-specific money updates.

• Scotiabank does timely financial updates when interest rates change, which happens to be the top three performing Money News video subjects.
• They also do a monthly news roundup where they cover the top news of the past month.

Views 304K | Engagement 1K 

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Brand Purpose

Partner with creators who are different from your usual content.

• Scotiabank partnered with a stop motion animator with 3.5M followers to create a brand awareness creative about their brand.
• The ad was well received in the comments. People enjoyed the unique art style for a bank but also the narrative of a bank that stays with you through it all.

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Pay it Forward

Showcase genuine moments of Canadians supporting one another to connect with the audience on a personal level. This content bucket went viral. 

Tactics:

• ‍Partner with popular creators such as Zachery Dereniowski (17M TikTok followers) to expand your reach.
• The "Pay it Forward" series features a social experiment designed to demonstrate the generosity of Canadians helping each other in times of need.
• Use emotion-based marketing to connect with viewers beyond your brand.
• Scotiabank did their own take on the “Next Person” trend which asks viewers if they would like to take an item or give it to the next person. 

Views 798K | Engagements 19.2K

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Views 734K | Engagements 21.3K