Plynk
Brief
Plynk was looking to raise awareness of their app and to promote the message that you can start investing with as little as a dollar, through an experience set up to feel as easy as a trip to the dollar store. The Plynk team wanted to engage people in a physical activation and raise awareness of the Plynk app in local markets. This would allow Plynk to reach people who were new to or have never invested and to jumpstart valuable conversations. This activation would also have digital reach and be replicable in the coming year.
Approach
Vested and the Plynk team created the “Plynk Investing Dollar Store.” The physical pop-up was on-site at holiday markets and shopping districts in New Orleans, LA and Austin, TX in December 2023. This activation encouraged holiday shoppers to walk through the booth, learn about how to invest on Plynk, and scan items to “buy” in the store while learning about top stocks.
In order to expand the reach of these two regional activations, a Satellite Media Tour (SMT) was hosted after the last city to share Plynk’s core messaging around why people should start investing and how Plynk makes this refreshingly easy. The SMT included B-roll from the activations, which were also promoted across Plynk’s social channels.
Planning the Plynk Investing Dollar Store
Mapping the Experience: Vested and the Plynk team aimed to create a tangible experience to show how you can use and start your investing journey with the Plynk app. To draw in attendees:
- Scan. Play. Win. was the main messaging theme to lower the barrier of entry to engaging with the pop-up experience.
- A simple, interactive shopping experience for each participant to “play” on their smartphones to play and learn.
- Every participant received custom Plynk swag and a $10-$100 gift card to a popular retailer.
- Our Plynk team was hands-on to ensure “shoppers” made the connection to the Plynk app experience.
Educational “aisles” were set up to align with Plynk investing categories: Women-led, AI, etc. with product representations of top purchased stocks in each category.
- The products on shelves were made to physically represent popular stocks offered within the Plynk app. For instance, scanning a pair of VR goggles would take a shopper to insights on Meta’s stock from Plynk’s “Expert Ratings” feature.
- Registered Plynk Associates on site could answer questions about how to start investing, as well as how Plynk can meet investors regardless of where they are on their investing journey.
At “Checkout,” every participant received custom Plynk swag and a gift card valuing between $10-$100 that was auto-generated by completing their shopping experience. This was a draw to participate and also added a surprise and delight feature for people in the midst of holiday shopping.
- Bags also included a promotion for Plynk’s $10 sign-up bonus to put towards starting their investing journey with Plynk.
- Emails captured allowed for the Plynk team to follow up with participants to learn more about the Plynk product and sign-up to begin their investing journey.
Results
In Austin and New Orleans, Plynk engaged with over 1,200 people in the “Plynk Investing Dollar Store,” all of whom provided their emails and spent quality time learning about Plynk’s app and mission. The videographer on-site pulled footage to expand the reach of this activation to Plynk’s social channels and owned content. The SMT included 21 interviews with Plynk’s key spokesperson, Maya Sudhakaran, across local affiliate channels. The interviews have been aired 803 times across local markets, reaching an audience of approximately 16.7 million people