The 30-second spot, which will make its TV debut during Sunday’s game, highlights the company’s brand pressure to “open the US financial system to everyone.” The ad introduces ordinary people living their lives and shows how they can incorporate the Robinhood app into their daily routine. The ad ends with the slogan “we are all investors”.
The announcement will air at a precarious time for Robinhood.
Last week, Robinhood outraged users and lawmakers by banning purchases of GameStop (GME), I HAVE C (I HAVE C) and other WalldtreetBets Reddit favorites that have disrupted parts of the financial markets. A few hours later, Robinhood raised $ 1 billion from existing investors in a move that signaled a cash crisis. Days later, the free trading app raised another $ 2.4 billion from investors – a massive amount that underscores the intense financial pressures the company is suddenly facing.
Robinhood’s decision to restrict certain transactions led users to file a class action lawsuit, claiming that the company’s actions had unfairly misled the market against its own customers. And Senator Elizabeth Warren this week demanded answers from the company for the “sudden change of rules” for individual investors by temporarily banning the purchase of certain shares.
The company’s blog post about the Super Bowl commercial does not mention the controversy. Rather, Robinhood said the ad was created in the “hope of reaching and empowering millions of people” who “felt left behind by the American financial system.”
“We are in this case for the early morning jogger, for the lunch study, for the late nursery rhymes – because we all invest in ourselves every day,” the company said in the post.
The common-sense vibration of the ad, which costs Robinhood to run for about $ 5.5 million during the game, follows a similar manual used by other companies that want to regain goodwill from the public and offer my fault. Fargo fountains (WFC), Uber (UBER) and Facebook (FB) all went on that route in 2018 following various controversies.
An effective apology announcement is addressed to the “elephant in the room”, said Tony Calcao, executive creative director at the advertising agency CP + B, about those 2018 campaigns.
“If you want to get those customers back,” he said, “you’d better admit you were wrong.”
Maybe he doesn’t have to admit anything. SimilarWeb data shows that the number of downloads totaled over 1.8 million last week – an increase of 400% over the previous week.
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