Brand strategy agency FYI Brand Group teamed up with rapper 21 Savage, San Francisco independent agency barrettSF and EverFi to promote a financial literacy program extending the Bank Account Campaign developed by the artist and his Leading by Example foundation to a wider audience.
A spot from barrettSF promoting the effort features 21 Savage explaining his own relationship with financial literacy and how it helped him focus on what made him happy.
The pandemic has lent the issue of financial literacy an increased sense of urgency.
“We realized in March kids K-12 would be indefinitely home schooling, our longtime goal to offer online financial literacy nationwide was expedited. We saw platforms like Scholastic and PBS were offering free education online, but saw no platforms had a focus on financial literacy,” FYI Brand Group founder and president Tammy Brook told AgencySpy.
So the agency spent the next three months contacting online education platforms to find a way to align, she explained. Chime subsequently expressed interest in aligning with the Bank Account program, which Brook called a “win-win solution.” Chime and FYI Brand Group then worked with EverFi to design the financial literacy course program. A first phase rolled out in July in three modules to elementary, middle and high school students wondering what to do at home during summer vacation.
Brook explained that 21 Savage was the right partner for Chime as a Gen Z ambassador and role model and that the campaign hopes to reach fans of his music.
“For him financial freedom is the key to infinite success combined with offering a solution and jump-start to economic wealth,” she said, “offering two-fold resources, education and bank accounts was always the goal.”
“The youth are always on their phones so naturally aligning with the leading mobile banking app to offer at the touch of your finger tip access to financial literacy tools and bank accounts was a perfect partnership,” she added.
FYI Brand Group worked with the Leading by Example organization and its brand partners on the program’s creation and development, collaborating to bring the effort to life. The six-part course will continue to roll out in the coming months.
The effort comes on the heels of a number of other recent campaigns FYI Brand Group has worked on, including a voter mobilization effort with Patrisse Cullors and the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. FYI Brand Group has worked with Black Lives Matter and Cullors since 2018 and was recently involved on a “Create Your Future” campaign acting as an extension of the foundation’s art and culture programming. The agency also worked on a Justice LA effort to drive prison reform in Los Angeles.