Opt for optimism
Data can be a potent form of empathy. So, when we saw that 47% of Americans couldn’t come up with $400 in savings in an emergency, we saw an opportunity to help solve a cultural problem. We put design thinking into action. We dug deeper to find that financial concerns were driving record levels of distrust, isolation, pressure, uncertainty, and stress. And because Frost Bank was built on making people’s lives better, we believed they’d be at their best in the eye of this cultural storm.
My Role
Discovery and research
Ideation
Content strategy
UX writing
The Challenge
Improve the financial well-being of Americans.
The Approach
We talked to people, read up on neuroeconomics, asked experts, covered posted walls with Post-It notes, and ideated together. Through research we identified a powerful tool that can make a major impact on financial well-being: Optimism. But, how does a bank (a bank of all things) inspire optimism? We grounded our message in research, focused on key areas, and aimed to start a movement, not an advertising campaign. Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight. So, this is just the first stages of a multi-year effort.
COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS
We partnered with Texas Monthly, Money-ish, and CultureMap to create an immersive storytelling program with inspirational spotlights, charity guides, and mentorships to show what optimism can do.
Frost It Forward
To foster generosity, we created Frost It Forward debit cards, loaded with $20 and instructions to make a stranger’s day better. We partnered with CultureMap to hand out the cards across Texas and tracked the spread of optimism on Instagram.
30-Day Optimism Challenge
The 30-Day Optimism Challenge was designed to build a sense of optimism every day in small, incremental steps. The challenge included an influencer campaign, daily emails, and a Facebook group. 290,000 acts of optimism were completed by people around the country.
Opt for optimism website: HOME PAGE ITERATIONS
We designed a website as the hub for the initiative, bringing together all the various channels such as research, video, editorial, events and everything else. We’re currently in the eighth iteration as the campaign evolves and additional content is created. Visit the full site
Here are the first six iterations of the home page where we scaled to include new partner content, initiatives, and other media.
OUR MISSION PAGE
Here’s a close-up of one of the latest pages, where we explain the mission of the campaign as well as proprietary research on the impact of optimism on personal finances.
Newsletter, EMAILS, & CONFIRMATION SCREEN
These are a few examples of a newsletter, emails, and confirmation screen related to the campaign. I also developed the content strategy and wrote the newsletter each month.