Who: Wealthsimple, its in-house creative team, and director Jonathan Alric (one-half of The Blaze)
What: A series of captivating ads for a new campaign using the tagline “Tomorrow Begins Today.”
How: In a blog post introducing the campaign, Wealthsimple explained that all humans experience life-changing moments—moments that we invest for—and wanted to turn those moments into little films.
What’s The Blaze? A super-hot French music and video producing duo that won a Cannes Lion Grand Prix and are the filmmakers that other filmmakers rave about. Alric is also the kind of director that brings extra cache, particularly among the millennial investors that Wealthsimple targets.
What’s so captivating? Wealthsimple founder and CEO Michael Katchen recently told Forbes: “We are the most human financial company in the world.” Plenty of faceless corporations (particularly in financial) have used versions of that line, but Wealthsimple has done a better job of seeming human than most through its marketing (ironic for a robo-advisor firm). And these spots do show some powerfully human moments: A father on his deathbed surrounded by family, including a newborn; a loving father waiting at the gates of a prison to meet his just-released son. All six spots are below.
And it’s done in-house? Yeah, but the marketing team is led by two former Wieden + Kennedy creatives: Rudy Adler and Mike Giepert.
We quote: From the Wealthsimple blog post: “Maybe, when you watch one of them for the first time, you’ll say to yourself, ”Wait, is this even a commercial?” Well, we hope you’ll say that. Because we don’t think of them as commercials as much as we do very real micro moments that actual humans can relate to. And the point is that, yes, you may not be able to stop life. And we, none of us, should try. But we can be ready for it.”