The 30-second spot, which will debut on television during Sunday’s game, highlights the company’s brand drive that “opens the American financial system to everyone.” The shopping space includes everyday people living their lives and shows how they can incorporate the Robinhood app into their daily routines. The commercial ends with the slogan “we are all investors”.
The announcement will run at a precarious time for Robinhood.
Last week, Robinhood outraged users and lawmakers by banning their purchase GameStop (GME), AMC (AMC) and other favorites from the WallStreetBets Reddit group that altered parts of the financial markets. Hours later, Robinhood raised $ 1 billion from existing investors in a move that signaled a cash crisis. Days later, the free trade application raised an additional $ 2.4 billion from investors, a massive sum that underscored the intense financial pressures the company is suddenly facing.
Robinhood’s decision to reduce certain operations caused users to file a class action claiming that the company’s shares unfairly chose the market against its own customers. And Senator Elizabeth Warren this week called for answers from the company for “abruptly changing the rules” of individual investors by temporarily banning purchases of certain shares.
The company’s blog post about the Super Bowl announcement doesn’t mention the controversy. Rather, Robinhood said the ad was created with “the hope of reaching and empowering millions of people” who “have felt abandoned by the American financial system.”
“We engage in the early morning jogger, the noon study, the afternoon rower, because we all invest in ourselves every day,” the company said in the message.
The bonanza feeling of the ad, which is costing some $ 5.5 million Robinhood to air during the game, follows a similar game book used by other companies that want to regain the goodwill of the public and offer a mea culpa. Wells Fargo (WFC), Uber (UBER) i Facebook (FB) they all followed this route in 2018 after several controversies.
An effective apology announcement is aimed at “the elephant in the room,” said Tony Calcao, executive creative director of advertising agency CP + B, about these 2018 campaigns.
“If you want to get those customers back,” he said, “you better admit you fucked up.”
Maybe you don’t need to acknowledge anything. SimilarWeb data shows that the number of downloads rose to more than 1.8 million last week, 400% more than the previous week.
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