AMERICAN EXPRESS
KICKSTARTING THE ECONOMY IN A PANDEMIC
SHOP SMALL COVID-19 RECOVERY
American Express—a brand focused on experience, travel, and backing small businesses—found themselves in the middle of a pandemic where people stopped going out, stopped traveling, and small businesses were suffering terribly because of it.
We helped Amex kickstart a recovery for merchants with their largest-ever global campaign for Shop Small. They committed more than $200 million to help get card members shopping small, and we committed to making that offer resonate.
OFFER ENROLLMENT
Amex was used to showing happy, smiling, merchants in their Shop Small campaigns—but messaging in this way during a pandemic would be disconnected from reality. I lead with a POV to show the grit, determination, and resilience that comes with being a small business owner during this time. Our enrollment posts became a fast success, with 2.5 million card members enrolling in the offer, and the offer being redeemed 12 million times at small businesses.
SMALL BUSINESS SHOUT-OUTS
Our social Shout-Outs paired the very rational benefits of the Amex shopping offer (saving money) with the very real, emotional benefit of shopping small (helping your community thrive). We focused on an authentic look at merchants, letting their unique points of view shine through.
MERCHANT TOOLKITS
Small business owners were already overworked and overstretched before the pandemic. And with COVID-19, they had to become instant experts on how to market in digital channels.
We developed plug-and-play assets for merchants to create compelling ads for their small businesses. Assets included social channel assets (stickers, hashtags), graphic digital templates (texts, emails), and social templates (IG/FB) that helped our small business owners become marketing pros overnight.
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
Thoughout social channels, we put a focus on small businesses that were hit particularly hard by the pandemic. By leveraging cultural moments, localization and specific merchant types, we had continuous ways to engage card members and encourage people to Shop Small for a big impact.
