2021 Winner
SilverBest in Finance and Services
HomeEquity Bank
"Catch the Scam"
Zulu Alpha Kilo & iQuanti
"Catch the Scam"
Zulu Alpha Kilo & iQuanti
HomeEquity Bank (HEB) provides reverse mortgages to Canadians 55 and over. Its brand purpose is to give people the freedom to live retirement their way by retiring in the homes they love. The challenge was to increase awareness and affinity for the brand during the COVID-19 crisis.
There has never been a time when seniors were more vulnerable to scam activity than during the pandemic, while they were alone and spending more time online. Cases of financial fraud aimed at Canadian seniors increased significantly in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data showed that social media and YouTube usage was up significantly. As an example, popular educational company MasterClass showed a 100% increase in subscribers, as people took the opportunity to learn new skills from leading experts in their respective fields.
Combining the rise in scams against seniors and society’s growing interest in niche expertise, they found the best person to ever pull a fast one: Frank Abagnale. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, they would show retirees how to master the scam. Frank Abagnale is a former con man turned security consultant, most notably portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, and best-selling author of Scam Me If You Can. And by adopting style cues from MasterClass, they put him in a position to fuse an invaluable education with entertainment.
The goals of the campaign were to generate at least 10 million impressions and receive a minimum of 250,000 views within HEB’s owned channels from their niche target audience of 55 years old and over.
The medium of online video was most suitable, given the rise of time spent online at the beginning of the pandemic. They wanted to be relevant in the space to educate and help people. Their media buy was limited to $25,000 across Facebook and YouTube and focused on those 55 and older. HomeEquity Bank had a strong following in these channels, as did Frank Abagnale. Research also showed that older people preferred these channels over other channels such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Each episode begins with Abagnale setting up a particular phone scam before he dives deeper into its psychological and financial mechanics. Of course, he also infuses the content with his infamous charm and wit along the way.
Four Catch the Scam episodes focus on scams that target Canadian seniors: “The Grandparent Scam,” scammers pose as a victim’s grandchild in need of cash, “The Lottery Scam,” scammers lead victims to believe they’ve actually won money, “The Romance Scam,” scammers romantically charm victims out of large sums of money, and “The CRA Scam,” scammers pose as Canada’s federal tax agency to
collect back taxes.
The media plan was built to mirror their audience’s activity and find them where they were spending most of their time during the pandemic: online. Retargeting was also used to secure additional views.
Frank Abagnale had never been approached by a financial services provider to represent them on anti-fraud education. By using the most notorious con man in modern history, it helped secure instant credibility. They also had Frank make several appearances and promote the episodes within his social media network along with multiple editorial outlets.
Despite a media budget of just $25,000, Catch the Scam generated over 1.2 million unique views on YouTube and Facebook from an audience that typically skews towards traditional media.
The campaign generated significant top-tier broadcast and online media coverage across Canada and beyond, with more than 35 million media impressions. Frank W. Abagnale, the campaign’s celebrity teacher, completed interviews with Global News, BNN Bloomberg, and Yahoo! News, resulting in invaluable national media attention. Additional coverage appeared on CTV News, CP24, Strategy magazine, Wealth Professional, and others.
Catch the Scam put HomeEquity Bank in a positive light with consumers and reinforced it as an advocate and champion for its customers. It was part of a multifaceted, year-long marketing effort that saw HomeEquity Bank’s reverse mortgage portfolio surpass $5 billion for the first time. The success was fuelled by a record-breaking year in 2020, marking a 39% growth over the past three years.
Creatively, the Shopper Innovation + Activation Awards called it one of the breakthrough campaigns of the year. Local and global trade magazines praised the campaign for its irreverence in using a former con man as its spokesperson and it garnered international attention from prestigious award shows like The One Show. This is HomeEquity Bank’s most successful online initiative ever undertaken.
There has never been a time when seniors were more vulnerable to scam activity than during the pandemic, while they were alone and spending more time online. Cases of financial fraud aimed at Canadian seniors increased significantly in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data showed that social media and YouTube usage was up significantly. As an example, popular educational company MasterClass showed a 100% increase in subscribers, as people took the opportunity to learn new skills from leading experts in their respective fields.
Combining the rise in scams against seniors and society’s growing interest in niche expertise, they found the best person to ever pull a fast one: Frank Abagnale. In a first-of-its-kind initiative, they would show retirees how to master the scam. Frank Abagnale is a former con man turned security consultant, most notably portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, and best-selling author of Scam Me If You Can. And by adopting style cues from MasterClass, they put him in a position to fuse an invaluable education with entertainment.
The goals of the campaign were to generate at least 10 million impressions and receive a minimum of 250,000 views within HEB’s owned channels from their niche target audience of 55 years old and over.
The medium of online video was most suitable, given the rise of time spent online at the beginning of the pandemic. They wanted to be relevant in the space to educate and help people. Their media buy was limited to $25,000 across Facebook and YouTube and focused on those 55 and older. HomeEquity Bank had a strong following in these channels, as did Frank Abagnale. Research also showed that older people preferred these channels over other channels such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Each episode begins with Abagnale setting up a particular phone scam before he dives deeper into its psychological and financial mechanics. Of course, he also infuses the content with his infamous charm and wit along the way.
Four Catch the Scam episodes focus on scams that target Canadian seniors: “The Grandparent Scam,” scammers pose as a victim’s grandchild in need of cash, “The Lottery Scam,” scammers lead victims to believe they’ve actually won money, “The Romance Scam,” scammers romantically charm victims out of large sums of money, and “The CRA Scam,” scammers pose as Canada’s federal tax agency to
collect back taxes.
The media plan was built to mirror their audience’s activity and find them where they were spending most of their time during the pandemic: online. Retargeting was also used to secure additional views.
Frank Abagnale had never been approached by a financial services provider to represent them on anti-fraud education. By using the most notorious con man in modern history, it helped secure instant credibility. They also had Frank make several appearances and promote the episodes within his social media network along with multiple editorial outlets.
Despite a media budget of just $25,000, Catch the Scam generated over 1.2 million unique views on YouTube and Facebook from an audience that typically skews towards traditional media.
The campaign generated significant top-tier broadcast and online media coverage across Canada and beyond, with more than 35 million media impressions. Frank W. Abagnale, the campaign’s celebrity teacher, completed interviews with Global News, BNN Bloomberg, and Yahoo! News, resulting in invaluable national media attention. Additional coverage appeared on CTV News, CP24, Strategy magazine, Wealth Professional, and others.
Catch the Scam put HomeEquity Bank in a positive light with consumers and reinforced it as an advocate and champion for its customers. It was part of a multifaceted, year-long marketing effort that saw HomeEquity Bank’s reverse mortgage portfolio surpass $5 billion for the first time. The success was fuelled by a record-breaking year in 2020, marking a 39% growth over the past three years.
Creatively, the Shopper Innovation + Activation Awards called it one of the breakthrough campaigns of the year. Local and global trade magazines praised the campaign for its irreverence in using a former con man as its spokesperson and it garnered international attention from prestigious award shows like The One Show. This is HomeEquity Bank’s most successful online initiative ever undertaken.
Credits
Agency: Zulu Alpha KiloChief Creative Officer: Zak Mroueh
Creative Director: Irfan Khan
ACD/Art Director: Kevin Sato
ACD/Writer: Vinay Parmar
Account Team: David Tremblay, Jenn Gaidola-Sobral
Planning Team: Tim Hopkins, Sean Bell
Client: HomeEquity Bank
Client: Yvonne Ziomecki, Vivianne Gauci, Erin Wilson, Niary Toodakian
Media: Iquanti
Media Team: Justin Lee & Yogesh Garbyal
Public Relations: Provident
PR Team: Morgan McLellan & Matt Roth
Production Company: Zulubot/Levelwing
Director: Mills Allison
Producers: Mitch Cappe, Kristina Loschiavo
Post Production: Zulubot
Executive Producer: Tom Evans
Editors: Ashlee Mitchell, Shiv Harrilal
Motion Graphics: Ashlee Mitchell
Colour: Felipe Chaparro
Audio: Noah Mroueh