Money Tree

Stevenson Advertising was assigned by Moneytree to develop a new creative approach to market payday loans, increase awareness of Moneytree, and tie the name to the products they sell.

Assignment: Stevenson Advertising was assigned my Moneytree to develop a new creative approach to market payday loans, increase awareness of Moneytree, and tie the name to the products they sell.

Objectives: One of the main objectives of the assignment was to counter the “pawn shop” image of many payday loan businesses, make the shopping their less intimidating, and to make consumers aware of Moneytree’s clean bright environment and friendly staff.

Strategy & Creative Execution: To achieve the objectives for Moneytree, Stevenson Advertising developed a new spokesperson, in the form of a Disney-style mascot, a big caterpillar named Bob. Bob is warm and fuzzy, a little dumb, and he is the caterpillar who lives in the “Moneytree.” In the initial commercials, Bob didn’t like the fact that the moneytree had dollars instead of leaves and he was trying to give the money away. The demeanor of the caterpillar removed the intimidating image of payday loan stores and by showing the inside of a store in the commercial, consumers got to see that it didn’t look like a pawn shop.

Media strategy: Because of the visual nature of the commercials, Stevenson Advertising’s media department recommended television to convey the message. At the same time, the buyers were able to research the television programs to find shows that indexed well with the payday loan customer demographic.

Campaign Achievement: The Bob the Caterpillar campaign was a tremendous success for Moneytree which has grown from 22 stores in Washington State, to 130 stores in five states. The repositioning of Moneytree against the normal “pawn shop” type image has resulted in Moneytree becoming the dominant payday loan chain in the Western U.S. Although Moneytree has tried other creative approaches in the past few years, they have returned to the Bob the Caterpillar campaign because it is the most well-known by consumers.