Business Chequing
Business Banking Without the Baggage
The brief I set myself
Drive awareness and account sign up for Wealthsimple Business Chequing that is objectively better on paper, but up against an audience that already knows their bank is expensive and stays anyway. The real barrier is not price but inertia.
Business owners tolerate bad banking because switching feels like another admin task they do not have time for. That insight shaped every decision in the campaign. I went with a "baggage" metaphor because it reframes fees as something customers actively carry, which mean they can choose to put them down.
The campaign covers the full acquisition funnel: paid social for awareness, a nurture email sequence for the consideration gap, and a landing page designed to remove switching anxiety at the point of decision.
The insight
Core problem
Traditional business banking often makes business owners pay too much for basic money movement: monthly account fees, account minimums, limited free transfers, branch-based setup, and extra fees for admin like CRA payments.
Audience
Incorporated Canadian small business owners and professionals who need an operating account for daily business cash: consultants, doctors, CPAs, incorporated contractors, agency owners, ecommerce operators, and professional service corporations.
Positioning
A modern operating account for incorporated businesses that want fewer fees, less admin, and a better way to manage everyday business cash, so they can focus on running their actual business.
Core message
Supporting messages
Competitive analysis
Hold the majority of incorporated business accounts by inertia. Products are feature-complete but structurally expensive. The target audience knows this and tolerates it.
Compete on price and UX, but mostly position around niches: Relay on multi-account cash flow, Koho on sole proprietors, Mercury on US-incorporated startups.
Wealthsimple already holds the personal finance relationship for a large share of the target audience, so the business product can land where trust is established, and the move from personal to business feels like an extension rather than a new relationship.
Funnel flow
Make the audience feel the cost of their current situation. Both channels run the "baggage" frame; the Reel spends 13 of 15 seconds on the problem before the brand appears, and LinkedIn ads 01 and 03 name the irritant without pivoting straight to features.
For the audience who engaged but has not converted, answer the implicit question — "okay, but is it actually better?" This is where specific product claims earn their place. The nurture sequence runs three emails: problem validation, product comparison, switching reassurance. LinkedIn concepts 02 and 04 operate here too.
Make opening an account feel fast, low-risk, and obvious through a product UI visual showing $0 fees in context, a strikethrough list of costs they currently pay, a FAQ section to answer common objections.
Deliverables
Calls to action
Success metrics & benchmarks
Goals set against B2B fintech industry averages.
Account-start actions from the landing page, attributable to paid channels.
Cost per completed account opening.
Why I made these calls
Baggage over fees
This campaign focuses on how switching decisions happen. Often it's not about the pricing, which invites feature evaluation, but when the current situation starts to feel absurd. "Baggage" makes the problem something the audience is choosing to carry, which means it is something they can choose to put down.
Four LinkedIn concepts
Deliberately spread across persuasion modes. In a live campaign these run as an A/B pool: the brief and landing page are fixed, the creative rotates until the data tells which angle wins.
Product reveal at 0:13
Effective TOFU video earns the emotion before it earns the right to sell. The Reel runs 13 of 15 seconds on the metaphor before Wealthsimple appears. By then the audience has already agreed the situation is excessive — so the brand's job in the last two seconds is to offer the exit, not to make the case for it.