First TV ads deliver ‘insane’ growth for digital bank Monzo

Industry Contributor 22 Jul 2019 - 2 min read

First TV ads deliver ‘insane’ growth for digital bank Monzo

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Tags: advertising, TV, marketing, finance, brands, downloads, growth

UK ‘unicorn’ digital bank Monzo saw massive growth in new customers, app downloads and brand awareness after launching its first TV campaign (Marketing Week).

Key points:

Monzo launched in 2015 as credit and pre-paid card app; launched current accounts in 2017 after UK regulatory restrictions lifted and reached 1m customers by October 2018, primarily through word of mouth
Started paid advertising this year after building out marketing team
First TV ad aired late May
June saw “biggest months of sign-ups ever”, with 250,000 new customers, up from 150,000 in April, says head of marketing and community, Tristan Thomas
Brand awareness increased from 35 per cent to 48 per cent
“It was pretty insane actually” – Tristan Thomas

Monzo became a £2bn company in a very short time on the back of an innovative product and word-of-mouth. Now it’s aiming to turbo charge growth beyond metropolitan millennials and its first TV ad is delivering both brand uplift and business outcomes in spades.

The company’s foray into paid media also includes out of home and digital formats and it has scaled up its marketing team in order to build on the word-of-mouth organic growth that Tristan Thomas says will remain its core strategy.

However, before the paid campaign launched, Thomas told Marketing Week that its success in delivering growth and brand uplift would influence Monzo’s marketing strategy and organic to paid customer acquisition ratios.

While Thomas said the brand wants to grow primarily through community and word-of-mouth rather than "shouting" via advertising, the smart money suggests the ad budget will now be increased.