After 30 years leading the marketing, loyalty, and retail credit card space, two market shifts threatened a Highwire client’s business model: Malls were dying, and millennial and Gen Z shoppers were rewriting consumer spending habits.

The company underwent a multi-year transformation, rebranding to a modern financial services company with new consumer offerings. For the first time, it needed to market directly to young consumers. Reaching them would require innovative consumer communications and a marketing strategy that pushed the client to take risks and experiment in unfamiliar territory. 

One of the new brand’s first milestones was launching the company’s first-ever direct-to-consumer credit card, specifically targeting Gen Z and millennials. The Highwire team needed a way to break through to these audiences less than one more after the rebrand, all with virtually no brand awareness and no credibility in the field of consumer finance. 

We designed a strategy to win Gen Z and millennial hearts and minds, enlisting third parties with established credibility and reaching young consumers where they live: social media. 

We studied what Gen Z cares about most. Then, we used this insight to build a surround-sound strategy for working with TikTok and Instagram content creators across topic areas aligned to the new card’s benefits — from travel to grocery shopping. We also worked with creators to host on-the-street financial trivia and giveaways, with each activation promoting financial literacy and showing young consumers how fiscal responsibility can pay off.

We enlisted the help of shopping and personal finance experts with established clout to serve as brand ambassadors. They promoted the card on national and top designated marketing area (DMA) broadcast segments, leveraging both targeted outreach and satellite media tours.

We even hosted a media dinner with a well-known Gen Z financial activist. Attendees got first-hand access to the Gen Z credit experience, naturally tied to the activist’s perceptions of the card and its benefits. The event secured interest from 10 journalists in the NYC area, including representatives from Forbes, CNBC Select, CNN, Fortune, MarketWatch, and others. 

Gen Z and millennial audiences responded positively to our launch strategy, with more than 6.7M influencer video views, 89.3K engagements across channels, and a 10% engagement rate on TikTok (more than 2X the average industry benchmark). TikTok supported customer acquisition by referring more than 20,000 site visitors, with over 2,400 blog page views per month and 2:34 minutes spent on each page, on average.

Our efforts across earned and brand ambassadors resulted in 18 standalone media placements during the card’s launch week in outlets such as CNBC Select, Insider, NerdWallet, WWD, and Yahoo! Finance with a 100% key message pull-through rate. Brand ambassadors also generated widespread broadcast coverage for the card with highlights including ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s The Today Show.

During an earnings call, the CEO highlighted the launch's success, touting impressive early card adoption among millennials and strong top-of-wallet behavior.

Since Highwire helped push the company’s reach beyond the mall and deep into direct-to-consumer territory, our program has expanded to include content, PR, influencer, and social media — including work supporting campaigns with household name brand partners.