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Picture this. It’s 8:17am. You’re waiting for the next tube, half-asleep and already thinking about the flat white you’ll grab before your 9:00am. And then you see it: that ad. The one that makes you question every debit card you’ve ever owned, and the one currently sitting in your digital wallet. The one you tapped in with. The one you were about to buy that coffee with. And it makes you think twice.

At least, that’s the dream. The collective hope of every marketer at ˮ��ֱ�� as our second ever Out of Home campaign hits the London Underground.

But before it went trackside, how did we actually get here? Let’s take you through it.

Step one: decide to do the thing

Obvious, yes. Easy, not so much. Out of Home (OOH) campaigns cost money. Real money. Which means you need to convince the big dogs, Finance and the CEO, that this is more than a “let’s look cool” moment.

You need KPIs. ROI predictions. Brand tracking plans. And a decent budget. Early on, we spoke with Global about what was realistic for the spend we had. Turns out, a lot more than we thought. Once we’d aligned on the why, where and when (and, crucially, the how much), it was time to fill in the blanks.

Step two: figure out the ‘what’

Saying yes to a brand awareness campaign is half the battle. Deciding what you actually want to say is the other half – and it’s the harder one.

In an age of AI sludge and infinite scroll, cutting through the noise is tough. Getting someone to look up from doomscrolling is tougher. The message had to be simple, bold and unapologetically ˮ��ֱ��. Say too much, you lose them. Say something nice, you bore them.

A few seconds of dwell time. That’s all you get. So make it count. Be clear. Be confident. Be memorable.

Step three: bring it to life

We partnered with creative agency RideShotgun to explore concepts, test lines, and get under the skin of what “ˮ��ֱ�� in public” should look like. Together, we stripped everything back to land on a strategy and point of view that felt both confident and human.

Then came the big question: play it safe, or say something new? I’ll be honest, we started out developing a concept about “tapping into London”. Very on-brand, very ˮ��ֱ��, very logical. That’s where the tension started to evolve. It was good but was it great? Out Of Home advertising ins’t cheap – unless you’re a huge brand you maybe get one shot every year, and that’s if you have a generous marketing budget. We rolled with it a bit more, tested it a little deeper and the feedback was positive. But we couldn’t shake the feeling that we weren’t being bold enough. Our product (in our eyes) is category breaking. So we needed an exterior attitude that reflected that.

Which brought us to F*CK THE BANKS. Yep, maybe anarchy had gone a little too far. We’re not rebels. We’re not liquid death. We’re a financial service. But one that’s trying to do things differently.

So we thought a bit harder. What are we trying to say? Who are we as a brand? How do we want people to feel? Which took us back to our founding and grounding principles: making money more rewarding.

ˮ��ֱ�� was built on the fact that we all tap away on our cards and get very little, if anything, back. But the big players who give you rewards lure you in with a rose-tinted vision but red-taped reality. Our vision it turning your everyday spending into experiences you actually want – last minute flights to visit your friend in Paris, dinner at that new local spot everyone’s raving about or treating your Mum to theatre tickets.

In our world, you earn points on every pound you spend. So if you’re not spending on ˮ��ֱ��, then your debit card is pointless. Probably.

Step four: cue the waiting

This is the moment you realise the creative deadline was, technically, yesterday. And that AI mock-ups and stock imagery will only take you so far.

Our brand lives and breathes shared experiences, so the answer was obvious. Shoot with real ˮ��ֱ�� members, at real ˮ��ֱ�� partner locations. With 48 hours’ notice, we pulled together a full-day shoot. Real people, real places, real stories. Suddenly, it all clicked.

Step five: get it out there

After rounds (and rounds) of tweaks, you finally hit send on the final assets. Multiple formats, multiple creatives. The eleventh-hour adrenaline is real.

Approvals from TfL and Global follow, and for a brief moment, you breathe. Then comes the waiting game.

Step six: the build-up

The green light lands. Dates are confirmed. Screens are booked. You tell your colleagues, they tell their friends, and suddenly it’s very real.

Now you’ve got to make sure everything else sings in tune. Align UGC content. Brief your performance partners. Rope in creators and influencers who get the brand. Craft organic content that feels part of the same world. Then take a deep breath. And a nap.

Step seven: release it into the wild

The beast is live. There it is: your brand towering over commuters in Canary Wharf (hi Finance Bros, we love you, please sign up*).

You plan a team trip to see it in person. It feels like a school outing, but in the best way. You get photos in the group chat. Pride mixes with panic: will this actually work?

Step eight: make the impact

One of our core values at ˮ��ֱ�� is Act Like an Owner. Which means we don’t just sit back and admire our handiwork. We amplify it.

It’s said people need to see a message seven times before it sticks. So why stop at billboards? We hit the streets. Tote bags, stickers, treats from our Experience partners. All handed out to Londoners during the morning rush.

To top it off, we teamed up with Origin Coffee to give away 100 free coffees, complete with ˮ��ֱ��-branded stickers and QR codes. Because if someone’s going to think about ˮ��ֱ��, it might as well be over a flat white.

So, what next?

We’re two weeks into a four-week campaign and feeling good. But as any marketer will tell you, gut feeling isn’t data. So we’ll crunch the numbers, track the impact, and share what we learned at the end of the year.

Because if there’s one thing we know about Out of Home, it’s this: when it’s done right, it doesn’t just get you seen. It gets people talking.

*18+ and UK only. Membership fee may apply. T&Cs apply. Please tell all your friends in finance about us.

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