We wanted to tell our story and build through aspirational content. Step strategically formed partnerships with some of the largest 20 in昀氀uencers 19 Step One is getting the attention of your audience with an eye-catching approach that is in the world... true to the brand. Square Cash’s #CashAppFriday demonstrated the power and traction CJ MacDonald, CEO of Step of this type of approach in consumer FinTech. By harnessing the power of social media, the Square Cash App team got many of their target customers tweeting about the product every Friday in a campaign built to send their users money. Similarly, the most recent version of this has led to what we believe is one of the most impressive launches of a consumer FinTech brand in Step, which has built a platform teaching 昀椀nancial literacy to the next generation. True to its brand, Step has bene昀椀ted spectacularly from TikTok (a channel consistent with the brand and audience!) as well as from campaigns such as $StepSaturdays and #TeamBlue / #TeamPink / #TeamYellow, depending on the color of the card you choose. Another playbook that we see executing well is taking a historically small dollar-cost product and making it free (e.g., bank accounts and credit monitoring). Legacy 昀椀nancial institutions have been very good at marking up basic 昀椀nancial products for a long time and they now depend on the steady cash 昀氀ow from these services. Meanwhile, Chime o昀昀ered its users a no-fee bank account, Revolut gave away cross-border payments, and Melio handed out Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments and checks. The act of giving away something that customers inherently feel like should be free buys businesses an incredible amount of goodwill and immediately signals to consumers that its interests are aligned with the company. When something is free, the top of the funnel inherently comes easier and you position yourself well with consumers to expose, attract them to, and ultimately sell innovative 昀椀nancial products. Companies can use the free product as an acquisition wedge and monetize elsewhere in the value chain. START WITH CUSTOMER ACQUISITION SHARE VISIT PG 14