We talked about:
- How no campaign is truly isolated — exploring how the CFP Board recruiting ad campaign reached unintended audiences and the unexpected consequence that followed
- Why staying true to your brand’s identity, values, and mission is key to creating marketing campaigns that resonate and deliver the outcomes you want
- The surprising silver lining of the marketing misstep, and how it gave the financial planning community an opportunity to showcase its passion and profession in a new light
If you enjoyed this episode, you will also like:
- Tips for Effective Branding and Website Strategies for Financial Services
- How a Brand Personality Can Drive Company Culture and Build Trust With Your Audience
- Your Media Marketing Strategy: Start By Letting Your Why Shine Through
Full Audio Transcript:
00:00 - 00:28
Lauren Hong
All right. Tiffany, so we’re doing this recording to talk about the CFP Board and the recent campaign that came out. It's a tricky topic. There's a lot of emotions and feedback, right? Where do we start?
00:29 - 00:48
Tiffany Silverberg
Well, like you said, it's very tricky. And we're not on the inside. We saw it come live, just like everyone else did through so many LinkedIn posts and people sharing and the reactions. So we've talked about it a lot internally. We want to make sure we're not being reactionary because again, we weren't there.
00:48 - 01:00
Tiffany Silverberg
We didn't get to make the decisions. But we're also seeing kind of how it's impacting people. And just kind of want to have a conversation about that and about how marketing means something. Marketing impacts things.
01:01 - 01:28
Lauren Hong
So it does and it has a domino effect, intact or not. And that can happen internally with an organization or externally as well. So to be a little vulnerable here when this campaign was released, it reminded me of a campaign that came out about five-ish years ago. I'm not exactly sure.
01:28 - 01:51
Lauren Hong
And the reason it feels vulnerable is because it's a campaign that was really close to me. So I'll just kind of share this to maybe help frame it. You know I love my undergrad, Drake University — I've sat on boards, I've flown back. I mentor students. All these things. It's a place that helped me grow up, right?
01:51 - 02:09
Lauren Hong
And they came out with this campaign, and like I said, about five years ago, they did all the research. It was a campaign that was to help recruit new students to come in. They did research. They spent budget. They tested it. They did focus groups. They came up with all kinds of ads.
02:09 - 02:34
Lauren Hong
But when it was released, it didn't sit well. Drake University starts with the letter D. It was D+ for a collegiate university focused on education, a grade with a D+, or that's how it was perceived and did not sit well with those who received it. But the concept was supposed to be, okay, you come here and you're going to get this.
02:34 - 02:57
Lauren Hong
Like first you have these experiences, you get this plus this. And so part of it was to send this out to all these new students to let them know, okay, you've been admitted and you get this and you're going to have a plethora of experiences and things you can dip into to explore. But the messaging and the way it came off from an alumni standpoint was bad.
02:57 - 02:59
Tiffany Silverberg
It was that you chose poorly, right?
02:59 - 03:20
Lauren Hong
Yes.
03:20 - 03:03
Tiffany Silverberg
You could have gone to the A school but instead you chose the D school.
03:03 - 03:26
Lauren Hong
Yeah. And we're all like, oh my gosh, this is not the intended message. It just didn't sit well. And especially an organization that you take so much pride in and helps you to be able to stretch your own wings. And so messages from alumni were flooding inboxes and there were conversations and there was social media, public comments.
03:26 - 03:57
Lauren Hong
And, the university rallied behind the messaging. And it helps to explain the why for what had gone on. But part of it, for lack of a better word, is a little bit of damage control. To be able to really help put things in place. But I think one of the takeaways for me was kind of what you were just alluding to earlier, too, that marketing does touch everyone, even if it's just related to this particular demo or graphic, we feel it in different ways.
03:57 - 04:07
Lauren Hong
Yeah. So I don't know what your thoughts are on that. But that was one of the things I was like, okay, do you want to pull up those skeletons again because it feels personal, right?
04:07 - 04:28
Tiffany Silverberg
The skeletons came out for you. It felt like you were living it again. Well, and I think it's a good similarity to this situation because as things came out, it became very obvious this campaign was meant to be, well, interestingly, the same thing, a recruiting campaign meant to be very siloed.
04:28 - 04:46
Tiffany Silverberg
And I think, again, I'm sure they did all the research. I'm sure they did all the focus groups and things like that. But I think the idea sometimes is that, well, it's all going to be okay. I'm sure everyone thought it was a great idea but it'll be okay because it's a separate thing.
04:46 - 05:13
Tiffany Silverberg
It's a separate audience. It's going to be on a different platform. These guys probably aren't going to see that but that's the way the digital world works. And we have a colleague who we were hoping could join us but it didn't work out who always shares this phrase and I'm going to butcher it. But basically the marketing either adds to your brand or it takes away from your brand. Everything that goes out is either going to add more to your brand or it's going to take away from it.
05:13 - 05:42
Tiffany Silverberg
And I think that's what we saw here is I know the idea was that it was supposed to be separate but everyone else felt it. And especially, again, alumni or those who hold the CFP®; there's so much pride there, there's so much identity there that when they see something they feel is taking away from what they've built internally, what's so much a part of them, I think that's where a lot of it came from.
05:42 - 05:59
Tiffany Silverberg
It's not that it was necessarily a bad idea, I mean, maybe it was or maybe it wasn't, but not to pick on the idea or the creative but it's just the feeling that it took away from something that I hold dear.
05:59 - 06:19
Lauren Hong
And that was kind of the parallel with how I felt too, and even feel that kind of vulnerability of being able to kind of pull up those skeletons, right? Because the way it came across wasn't the perception of how I think others perhaps saw that, even though that wasn't the intention behind it.
06:19 - 06:36
Lauren Hong
But yeah, shoutout to Jimmy, our colleague, who has that great quote of everything you're doing is either adding to the brand or taking away from the brand. And so I think it's almost like a good buffer to say, is this helping us along our mission or is this deviating from those pieces?
06:36 - 06:45
Lauren Hong
And how do we react in times where things might feel like they're a little bit off course, right?
06:45 - 07:09
Tiffany Silverberg
So yeah. And that's kind of the thing about the silo, because it can be easy to just connect the dots. I mean, we talk about connecting the dots all the time — we want this piece, whatever this campaign is, to hit these targets. We have these goals. We want people doing these things. But again, I think it's just like looking at the big picture.
07:09 - 07:32
Tiffany Silverberg
How is it just going to make people feel? Is it reflecting the greater part of what we're trying to accomplish? Does it reflect our mission statement? So, just let the cat out of the bag, like we always talk about when we put a brand book together or a strategy document, it's got all the pieces: mission statement, vision statement, values, and brand personality.
07:32 - 07:50
Tiffany Silverberg
What do we want people to feel when they interact with us? And all those components are kind of the filter for anything we design or any words we put out. And it's always like it. It has to stay within those guardrails. Anything outside of that is just not going to work. It might be fun.
07:50 - 08:03
Tiffany Silverberg
It might be creative. And I think especially in a TikTok world where new trends are happening, it's like, we should go do that. But if it's not within our values, it doesn't mean they're bad. It doesn't mean that thing outside of it is bad.
08:03 - 08:04
Lauren Hong
It is judging, right? And simply.
08:04 - 08:18
Tiffany Silverberg
It just means it's not us and while we might all like it, some of our teammates are going to be like, oh, that wasn't us, because it's not in those guardrails, that fence.
08:18 - 08:45
Lauren Hong
I love that. That's a really good analogy. The guardrails. And I feel like it's what helps keep you along that path. And from a business standpoint, like you mentioned earlier, mission, vision, values; I love the brand personalities we put together. I feel like that really helps to exuberate in a word or two, what's the energy we want to really channel through those guardrails.
08:45 - 09:05
Tiffany Silverberg
And that's kind of what the two examples we're talking about — it was the energy that was missing. That's not how we want to be perceived in the world. That's not the energy we want to put out. And so it's not that it wasn't clever. Both of the examples — it wasn't that they weren't clever or even potentially even potentially even hitting those goals.
09:05 - 09:22
Tiffany Silverberg
Yeah. But openly, it's not putting out the energy we want to be perceived like. When we talk about personalities and just the whole brand, whether it's somebody picking up the phone talking to you or a social media post, we want them to feel the same energy.
09:22 - 09:44
Lauren Hong
That's right. And that's easy to be able to pull out through every visual piece or how you're hiring or training or keeping that momentum going. But it gives you that. Again, you said like those guardrails to be able to go back to. And I also think in challenging times, I mean, we see this with all kinds of situations, right?
09:44 - 10:27
Lauren Hong
I feel like there can be unexpected things that happen or clients have to really kind of pull back. I think it really helps you keep on pace amid the unexpected — I don't even know if I want to use that or crisis. But sometimes in a crisis just to be able to say, okay, if we're showing up in every day, this is how we're showing up in every day but how do we show up to be able to keep that energy along those guardrails so that it's a calm, cool, and collected or if it's we've got your back or whatever that message might be, that there's that continuity.
10:27 - 10:58
Tiffany Silverberg
Exactly. We talk about that in voice guides all the time, right? That there's going to be a tone that might have to shift, maybe something's more urgent or it's left less urgent. Maybe it's a social media post versus a memo but the voice is always going to be the same. And I just thought of a great example of a wealth management and planning firm we work with, and they brought out the point that they're coming from a place of trust — that's a core part of their personality.
10:58 - 11:18
Tiffany Silverberg
And so they're like, well, we could play outside of that and we could play on fears but that's never going to feel authentically us. Every time we show up, it should be promoting trust. It should be building on that. Like aspiring to more and more, trust me and take it down a notch and kind of play around with that.
11:18 - 11:20
Tiffany Silverberg
But it just will never feel right.
11:20 - 11:23
Lauren Hong
It's sort of going against the grain.
11:24 - 11:36
Tiffany Silverberg
Yeah, yeah. And I think that's where even situations like this one where it was supposed to be funny, if it feels so opposite of what we've built, then I think that's where the problem can come in.
11:36:24 - 11:44:04
Lauren Hong
Yeah. It was the deviation. It's just too far. Too far off.
11:44 - 11:53
Tiffany Silverberg
Yeah. Or maybe not even that. It was too far off but it was literally the opposite. And now that's what I'm working against.
11:53 - 12:14
Lauren Hong
Sort of scribbling against those guardrails or it's growing outside of the lines of what's been established. I think of another example, there's a firm we've worked with for a number of years now, and very much has that calm, cool, and collected feel. But they had a totally unexpected issue that happened.
12:14 - 12:32
Lauren Hong
It might have been last year. And part of it was a crisis situation. Not going to go into all the specifics but it was almost like externally you don't want to have that sort of Doctor Jekyll, kind of like Mr. Hyde. Like you’re flipping from that work of calm, cool, and collected. We got it.
12:32 - 12:54
Lauren Hong
You know, there's that trust like you were alluding to earlier, in these kinds of pieces. And then all of a sudden it's like everything's untangling. And so part of it on the inside, which people don't always see, is to take that stress anxiety out, right? Because they're trying to do the right things for their clients or trying to take care of things, make sure things are buttoned up, and people are well taken care of.
12:54 - 13:18
Lauren Hong
But trying to take all that energy and then saying, okay, let's return back to our brand. Like you said, we can slightly adjust the tone. I mean, not even slightly, right? But we're adjusting the tone enough so there's that constant, like, we've got it taken care of, right? And we recognize what's going on but we've taken this step that is consistently aligned with how we show up every single day.
13:18 - 13:19
Lauren Hong
So yeah.
13:19 - 13:31
Tiffany Silverberg
The same firm I'm thinking of also just won a pretty great award. So obviously when they're posting something about that the tone is going to be different than having to put out a memo communicating about that serious thing.
13:31 - 13:32
Lauren Hong
Yeah.
13:32 - 13:52
Tiffany Silverberg
But we're about, like you said, trust and confidence. And if they had put out something that was anxiety-ridden in that first one, it's kind of like we said, everything adds to or takes away from the brand. And it would communicate to clients that, oh gosh, if things got crazy on my end, like if I was in a crisis situation, they're going to panic.
13:52 - 13:54
Tiffany Silverberg
Like, that's who they are.
13:54 - 14:16
Lauren Hong
So yep, it's so true. So another thing that personally helps me is I like to get a lot of big ideas. And they're not always realistic, right? Sometimes you think, I'm going to do this project, it's going to be no big deal. And you're like, okay, let's take a minute back to see where does that fit in?
14:16 - 14:36
Lauren Hong
And I think to connect the dots here is this idea of are we adding to the brand or are we taking away from the brand allows us to take ideas and say, that might be a great idea but that's not the right idea that's going to propel the company forward for the the business objectives we're trying to hit.
14:36 - 14:42
Lauren Hong
So it does help to be able to keep within that one line.
14:42 - 15:01
Tiffany Silverberg
So yeah, I think that's what we saw too with people reacting to the CFP campaign. Or again, I know there was something strategic, we're hoping to get these outcomes. But I think a lot of people felt like the way we got to those outcomes, and even the outcomes themselves might have deviated from what they felt was the business goal.
15:01 - 15:20
Tiffany Silverberg
And that's a big disconnect too. I was thinking about it. It's almost like sometimes we see marketing as like the kid brother building mud pies in the backyard; it's just fine. Whatever you build, it's fine. But I don't know, probably because I'm a mom. I feel like it's more like marketing for the mom. Like she's setting the tone.
15:20 - 15:34
Tiffany Silverberg
She's setting the schedule. Not that we're running the show but setting the tone. It's not just like, whatever Bobby does in the backyard. It's not just too far.
15:34 - 15:53
Lauren Hong
The energy impacts everything, right? If you're inside of the house or not. So, yeah. So, it's keeping that constant and it's a tricky campaign to talk about because it has a lot of emotions and reactions and what have you.
15:53 - 16:04
Tiffany Silverberg
You know, there's a lot of people who were involved or weren't involved and I know a lot of people feel a lot of things about it. So that's a tough one.
16:04 - 16:30
Lauren Hong
But I also think it's an opportunity to also reflect on businesses like your own business and say, how does this impact me and how can I take lessons learned here? And then, also a reminder that we're not all on the inside, right? Not having those initial strategy conversations, what's happening, what's the direction and the thinking.
16:30 - 16:36
Lauren Hong
So really. All right. Any other thoughts?
16:36 - 16:55
Tiffany Silverberg
I think the only other great takeaway I saw happening from all this is just what an amazing community the CFP® community is and how quickly people were like, let's flip it on its head. Let's remind people of all the amazing things we do for our clients. Let's remind them of the fun stuff. You know, the good stuff we do in our free time and taking care of our community.
16:55 - 17:11
Tiffany Silverberg
And it's been really fun to see people step up and play with it in that way. You see that passion, right?.
17:11 - 17:18
Lauren Hong
Because we can all be passive and just sort of throw your hands up. But that's not been the reaction. There's a lot of heart and soul people who care, have opinions, are sharing their own thoughts, having side conversations, all those sorts of things.
17:18 - 17:37
Lauren Hong
And I felt that, linking back to the Drake campaign too. I felt that energy almost just like it's on the surface. It was like almost after a rainstorm, where they're like, oh my gosh, all these things surface. The soil’s rich and you feel that sort of piece of it.
17:37 - 17:45
Lauren Hong
And so I think that's also a reminder, like you said, just about the positive energy that's going on with the community.
17:45 - 17:47
Tiffany Silverberg
So thank you.
17:48 - 17:54
Lauren Hong
All right. All right. Thanks. Good.
