SMARTDOLLAR PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

Explore a Brighter Future

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Millionaire Movement

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Rock Your Resolutions

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Process:

While another designer took the lead on creating the final assets, I supported him with the creation of hero imagery, as I had a high level of familiarity with the overarching tone of the campaign. I was inspired by old travel postcards and murals for the visual direction and loved the classic “Greeting From . . .” designs that featured states’ names in bold letters. My teammate found a great picture of a woman leaning against a wall and, with that, we had the perfect canvas to design on.

I started by creating a basic type treatment with some 3D type and classic wave look. I inlaid it with a series of images representing different financial and retirement goals clients could budget towards, like buying a house, traveling, and spending time with grandchildren. I then brought it into Procreate and lettered the remaining words with a similar style and tone to the old postcards. Once all of the typography was done, we brought it all into Photoshop to be combined with the hero imagery across all assets.

Theme:

With that in mind, our team worked together to figure out a way to connect the theme of “millionaires” with our audience for our 2019 New Year’s assets. After brainstorming a series of motivating themes, our marketing team loved the idea of calling users to join a millionaire movement and getting them to enact habits that would get them on the right path. I sketched a few different ideas that could visually convey the spirit of the campaign.

Initial Concepts:

Based on the brief, I presented these two initial rough drafts. They both were featured large typography, one with the pattern and another stylized similarly to other Ramsey designs. Ultimately, our team decided it wasn’t quite right. Up until this point, the SmartDollar brand had relied heavily on illustration, so we decided to pivot with an entirely different approach.

Digital Illustration:

With that feedback in tow, I got down to sketching new concepts. Based on our earlier brainstorms, I really liked the idea of focusing on a path that was easy for a user to follow. Focusing in on the easy step-by-step instructions, I wanted to connect the idea of a GPS getting someone from point A to point B easily and clearly. I wanted users to think about SmartDollar as a GPS for their money, telling them exactly what steps to take to reach their financial goals.

I then worked on two main hero illustrations. Considering this was a New Years’ campaign, I knew a lot of people often set health goals, and incorporating a runner felt like another way to connect with users. I focused on bright, hopeful colors and a minimal color palette that featured a new user taking their first step into the journey towards becoming an everyday millionaire.

Rock Your Resolutions Campaign:

For our 2020 New Year’s campaign, we wanted to do something different. We had introduced more photography into our brand and were no longer using stock photography. We wanted to use this campaign to feature real SmartDollar users. Luckily we had the Gould family scheduled to come into the office to do their debt-free scream on The Dave Ramsey Show. They had an awesome story about buckling down and paying off over $54,000 of debt in a single year!

While they were on-site, we set up our photo studios and did a really fun shoot with the whole family. Knowing it was a big moment for them, we brought in all sorts of props like balloons and confetti to capture the experience. To pair with the energy of the photos, I designed some subtle neon typography and engaging geometric patterns to interplay with the photos.

$5,000 Cash Streak:

For our Fall 2020 contest, we explored the idea of expanding from a randomized giveaway to a streak contest. The purpose of the SmartDollar app is to build healthy money habits and what better way to encourage that, than by incentivizing product use with streaks? Essentially, the more users engaged with the app, the higher their chances were of winning more money. Over the month of September, we gave away a $10,000 prize split over four tiers.

I wanted to anchor the poster design around a central, flashy typographic treatment that would grab users’ attention. I liked the idea of incorporating a set of light bulbs with a thunderbolt mark that lit up consecutively as a nod to their weekly streak.

User Tests:

Before making the final call whether or not the streaks were too complex an idea, I ended up designing two variations of the poster. One featured the tiered, cash prize system while the other simply highlighted weekly cash prizes like our other randomized contests. We then printed out both and presented them to lobby visitors to see which idea resonated best. It was a very close vote but, ultimately, people preferred the simplicity of a giveaway without needing to get overly bogged down by the details of what qualified as a streak.

$5,000 Spring Giveaway:

For our spring 2020 contest, we wanted to focus on a large cash prize. At the time, it was the most money we had given away in a single contest period. Our goal was to inspire people to engage with the product, set money goals, and use potential winnings to speed up their financial progress.

Challenge:

As a company, Ramsey Solutions drew a line in the sand to no longer use stock photography. I collaborated with a co-worker to shoot our own imagery so we could feature everyday items as elements to use within the contest.

Ideally, we wanted winners to use the prize money towards their money goals, but as it was a free cash prize, we couldn’t tell them what to do with their winnings. I worked with our team to harness the stories and accomplishments of other feature SmartDollar users as aspirational identities for what could be accomplished with the extra cash.

Sketching:

In order to elevate our photos so they didn’t look generic, I sketched out a series of quirky accent pieces to be paired with them. Combined with the aspiration vignettes, it helped users connect to fun, motivational goals they could realistically achieve with the $5,000.

In order to keep the hand-drawn feel, I sketched everything out on paper and scanned them into vector art using the Adobe Shapes app. This allowed me to scale the images easily while keeping the rough edges and imperfections for added character.