​For the past decade, Discover has been falling behind competitors in Brand Consideration with leading indicators like “Brand for Someone like Me” and “Brand I’m Proud to Use” on the decline year-over-year. The brand needed a revival. The brief hit directly upon this, tasking us to create a differentiated and breakthrough platform that would close the gap between how much customers love us and how little prospects know about us. The goal was lofty, especially for a 38-year-old well-established brand: To increase Brand Consideration +2 points in 6 months with a campaign that exceeds all Engagement and Persuasion benchmarks.

In this film, Jennifer Coolidge is in a diner booth, excitedly talking to someone about how Discover gives her cash back on purchases she makes with her debit card – not just her credit card – and makes her feel special. The person she's chatting with gently reveals that EVERYONE gets cash back on debit with Discover Cashback Debit, which immediately deflates Jennifer...especially as Jennifer realizes that even her childhood nemesis gets cash back if they have the Discover Cashback Debit card. We then reveal that the person Jennifer is talking to is actually her waiter and he's just waiting for Jennifer to pay her tab. Once he finally gets her to pay, Jennifer tries to continue the conversation with an unassuming bus boy.

This was Discover’s most successful campaign in recent decades and perhaps, ever. We broke through in culture after only one month with the highest Branded Ad Recall in Discover’s history and the highest Ad Persuasion scores in the category and a 260% increase in social followers.

We saw growth across all major Brand Health indicators. The new campaign is helping build a reputation as a credible bank which offers innovative and rewarding bank products, and has already driven Brand Consideration (+1), Card Consideration (+2) – moved from #3 to #2, Brand Presence (+4) and Innovative of Financial Services (+4).

We’re also seeing wins with our customers and their love of the new campaign. Credit Card recommend is up +2, Checking awareness improved +10, and we have seen growth in multiple perceptions of the brand - for someone like me, gives customers a great experience, rewards leadership and cares about me.