Taylor Swift can do no wrong. Her Eras Tour is making history. She’s setting stadium attendance records and has broken her own record as the woman with the highest-grossing U.S. tour of all time. She’s released three albums in the last three years, all of which are top sellers. She’s even built a real estate portfolio estimated to be worth $150 million.
And according to EDO’s recent analysis of television advertising in the credit card industry, Swift also has the golden touch for television viewers. The singer appears in multiple Capital One credit card TV creatives that have been wildly effective, with a 30-second ad for the Venture X card proving to be 113% more likely to drive consumers to interact with the brand online than a typical credit card TV ad.
Capital One’s involvement with Swift is just one of the many ways the credit card industry is reaching consumers who want to save on travel ahead of a cruel summer of high inflation and diminished buying power. According to EDO’s analysis of credit card TV ads during the first four months of the year, viewers were 22% more engaged with credit card category ads this year than the last.
So, what are companies like Capital One and Discover doing right, and what can other companies learn from them? Here’s a look at what’s working in TV advertising among credit card brands.
What Slash, Samuel L. Jackson, and Charles Barkley can do for you
Credit card companies might have found a winning combination for driving consumer interest: celebrities and humor. EDO uses proprietary data science to determine how effective creatives are at driving consumers to engage online with a brand. It’s about identifying what’s working, so brands can maximize effectiveness without having to ramp up ad spend.
In the credit card industry, Capital One’s creatives are hard to forget. That’s partly because Capital One ran 19,000 of the credit card industry’s 70,000 airings at the start of 2023. But Capital One was also more effective at driving interest in its credit cards, with two of the top three TV ads in the industry, according to EDO’s look at January-April 2023 data.
By now, you’re probably familiar with Swift’s Capital One spot. The famous singer appears as many versions of herself, pitching the variety of rewards their target audience can find with Capital One’s Venture X card. Think of it as a tour of the eras in Swift’s life… or a tour that earned Capital One the most effective Credit Cards category TV ad during the first four months of the year.
Jokes are also often a theme in Capital One’s creatives. Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, and Charles Barkley annually team up for goofy spots around March Madness. (Who could forget the time Barkley led the group to Annapolis, Maryland, instead of Indianapolis? Or Barkley shaving customers’ heads in his barbershop?)
You’ve probably also seen Capital One’s most-aired ad of 2023. It features Slash, the world-famous guitarist for Guns ‘n’ Roses, shredding a band audition with a clear celebrity and humor-infused message: Banking with Capital One is an even easier decision than a band hiring Slash.
The celebrities and the jokes are tactical. Capital One had two of the three most effective credit card ads in the first four months of the year. Chase had the other top creative, with a 30-second spot featuring Michael B. Jordan delivering 115% better-than-average engagement for credit card TV ads.
Finding value for consumers
However, all advertising strategy doesn’t boil down to hiring a celebrity spokesperson and making a few jokes. Discover was second-best at driving consumer interest in the first four months of 2023, and they did it with a classic value proposition.
The most effective Discover ad was its 15-second Double Cash Back spot, which was 112% more effective than the average credit card ad at driving engagement and was also Discover’s most-aired ad. The brand’s No. 2 ad, Shake Your Thing, also promoted the cash-back offer. The cash-back TV ads were more effective at driving engagement than ads focused on security and privacy, showing consumers are just as interested in getting added value for their spending as they are in Taylor Swift. Shake it off, privacy fans. Shake it off.
While that data is crucial to note if you’re in the credit card industry, there’s a takeaway for all modern marketers: Consumers are primarily interested in some kind of value proposition.
Chase’s Michael B. Jordan ad showed all the luxury bonuses consumers can get with their rewards program. Taylor Swift and Charles Barkley were essentially pitching the same thing: rewards and cash-back offers from Capital One. Savvy marketers should consider emphasizing the value of those programs in their pitches to consumers—particularly during tough economic times.
Custom TV data for everybody
Everybody’s situation is different; Discover’s customers are different from Chase’s customers, and we expect emerging credit card providers like Apple will appeal even still to an entirely different set. Fortunately, when it comes to TV advertising, EDO provides better, more reliable data that shows intent to purchase so that these brands, and more, can enter the summer season already knowing what works.
The lesson from the credit card industry’s 22% improvement in engagement this year is simple: Modern marketers can improve their results by using their existing creatives better. And when you’re ready to optimize your TV media buying, we’re here to help. Just write your name in our blank space to learn all about the inspiring ways that “you belong with [EDO].”