“Don’t Get Mad, Get E*TRADE” is a uniquely American campaign that still leverages a universal human truth. Charles Kettering, an American industrialist, once noted that “the key to economic prosperity is the organized creation of dissatisfaction,” and that inherently American sensibility shines through in the work.

The campaign’s subversive nature reads clearly in-market; its demonstrations of over-the-top wealth and opulence are both a satirical acknowledgment of American consumer culture and a tongue-in-cheek indictment of the economic inequality said culture creates.

While the expression and creative manifestation of the work reflect the American market, its strategic underpinnings are universal. Acknowledging anger’s power to drive positive action and change is a behavioral insight into the human condition, regardless of market.

Rather than ignore financial frustrations, we thought, “What if we could leverage and channel it into positive action for E*TRADE?” The strategy was simple: Make people mad enough to take control of their finances.

The “Don’t Get Mad, Get E*TRADE” campaign places these frustrations front and center while making E*TRADE the solution in one fell swoop.

The strategy played a critical role in influencing its execution; it effectively enabled the marriage of our consumer’s personal frustrations with a range of cultural conversations (e.g., economic inequality and social mobility) that loom over American culture.

While the campaign’s initial launch focused on how “dumb money” always gets ahead, this latest manifestation puts a mirror to our audience’s personal struggles; messages like “Your Job Is Rewarding, Just Not Financially” and “There Are Dogs With Better Lives Than You” still leverages comedic storytelling serving as a motivating “punch to the gut, with a smile."

Our segmentation study identified the “Investment-Ready Professionals,” 16.3 million urbanites in the United States who know they need to start investing beyond 401(k)s but are afraid to take the plunge.

Emotional fears (not understanding the markets, not trusting the industry, and fearing the loss of what they’ve worked so hard to save) reinforced their inertia; we needed to uncover an emotional lever to combat their fears.

In focus groups, we probed the American Dream, the idea that one can achieve prosperity no matter where we start in life. Unanimously, participants expressed their frustrations with social mobility today and feeling left behind, no matter how hard they worked.

When asked to express how they felt when they saw others doing better than them financially, they would become resentful and downright angry.

At that moment, we discovered that anger had the power to drive action; when it came to money, anger was a more powerful emotion than fear.

With only 32 percent of Americans satisfied with their financial situation, this makes sense, given how exposed we are today to extreme wealth online and in culture.

Keeping up with the Joneses isn’t enough—now you have to keep up with the Kardashians.

After years of negative net new account growth, the campaign has brought prospects in droves. In its first year, it helped drive the largest account growth in over a decade.

Earlier this year, E*TRADE achieved 5.9% net new account growth (outperforming an already lofty goal) and recaptured the brand’s prestige in the market in the process; the brand has the highest share of voice in the category (while still being heavily outspent).

We’d raised the advertising bar, as evidenced by Ace Metrix scores, which measure communications against the financial sector category. Our campaign’s average score is 78 points above the previous campaign average, and 92 points above the category’s norm.

Finally, the return on the marketing investment for the campaign grew by 13% (vs. the prior campaign). Even as E*TRADE’s media spending increased, there were no diminishing returns on said investment, proving the campaign was clearly driving movement to E*TRADE.