How Barclays achieved record ROI by embracing the ‘Moneyverse’

As a nation, Brits often have a troubled relationship with money. Some 12.3 million UK adults have little or no confidence managing their money, while 80% have lost sleep over money worries.

Armed with this insight, Barclays and creative agency BBH wanted to develop a long-term solution to help families, as well as a target market of 18- to 30-year-olds, rebuild their “dysfunctional” relationship with money.

The pandemic gave the bank time to reassess its existing ‘Make Money Work For You’ platform, developing a message to show what true financial control could look like. The result was ‘The Moneyverse’, a campaign designed to project a “magical vision” of what people could expect from their bank.

Ads featured the stories of how three characters made money work for them, turning product benefits into emotional messaging. For the first time, Barclays invested in long-form branded content, showing real people positively changing their relationship with money.

Following the campaign’s launch, prompted consideration for Barclays moved from fourth to first place, with consideration among 18- to 30-year-olds reaching an all-time high of 50% in Q3 2021.

The bank outperformed competitors to gain first position for overall share of new mortgages and joint top position among first time buyers. Furthermore, the number of mortgages econometrics showed were attributable to marketing increased following the release of the Moneyverse campaign.

Crucially, brand media profit and media ROI hit record levels, climbing above competitors for first time mortgages and mortgages overall, helping Barclays claim the Marketing Week Award for Financial Services.