Royal Bank of Canada

The Objective

Cheering on Team Canada with the TikTok community

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is one of Canada’s biggest banks and one of the largest in the world based on market capitalization. So when its partner, Team Canada, was competing at the Olympic Games, they wanted to show up in a big way. To support its partnership and encourage the TikTok community to cheer on the athletes, RBC looked to TikTok to stand out amongst its finance competitors with a truly innovative and authentic campaign designed around co-creation.

The Solution

Innovating through co-creation

When it comes to brand love, financial products and services aren’t the first to come to mind. But RBC changed that sentiment with an all-in TikTok campaign using every single TikTok advertising product available to humanize the relationship between the bank and every day people. With co-creation at the heart of the campaign, RBC launched a Hashtag Challenge and Branded Effect to get the TikTok community involved while positioning itself as a leader in the finance space by being the first bank in Canada to run a Hashtag Challenge and Branded Effect.

The #RBCPodiumPose encouraged users to get in the spirit by showing off their best podium poses using the RBC Branded Effect. RBC also worked with Team Canada athletes to elevate awareness of the Branded Effect and promote the brand’s partnership in support of the competing athletes. Competitors and RBC ambassadors like snowboarder Mark McMorris, swimmer Penny Oleksiak, Taekwondo star Skylar Park, track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell, and more used the Branded Effect to show off their #RBCPodiumPose while encouraging followers to participate. RBC then harnessed the power of TikTok’s variety of advertising solutions to put the campaign in the spotlight using TopView, OneDayMax, and In-Feed Ads.

TopView is the first ad users see when they open the app, which put #RBCPodiumPose front and center to boost awareness and interactivity. OneDayMax furthered visibility with its premium position as the first ad users see on their For You Page. Finally, RBC used the In-Feed Spark Ads to bring authenticity to the finance ad campaign by featuring the athlete-created content. And because each athlete was already active on TikTok, the content positioned the finance ads in a way that felt native to the platform while embodying the spirit of creator-led content. Together, the multi-faceted campaign helped the bank reach its lofty goals for the games while reaching new heights within the finance industry.

The Results

Achieving firsts and driving participation during the games

Team Canada wasn't the only one participating during the games! The TikTok community got in on the action, with over fourteen hundred videos created with the Branded Effect garnering over two million organic views on #RBCPodiumPose and Branded Effect videos and 309 million total hashtag views. TopView, OneDayMax, and In-Feed Ads helped drive reach with each of the products bringing in over four million videos, totaling a reach of over 13 million and 38 million combined impressions. The products also drove users to the Hashtag Challenge to participate and use the Branded Effect with TopView delivering a click-through rate of 3.63%.

RBC's performance drove results — a campaign Brand Lift Study showed an 11% increase in Ad Recall, showing that the bank was able to breakthrough to Canadians with thumb-stopping and memorable content through incredibly positive co-creation on TikTok, plus they were the first Canadian bank to use a Hashtag Challenge with Branded Effect. Quite the show, RBC!