NatWest is helping start-ups amplify their marketing by giving three fledgling enterpreneurs £55,000 each in production and media spend over the next three weeks.
The bank has chosen the trio from its Back Her Business initiative and, alongside VaynerMedia London, has created ads for each brand that will appear over the next three weeks on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. The ads carry the slogan: "This was going to be an ad for NatWest Back Her Business. But we thought we’d advertise her business instead."
The three businesses are MasterPeace, Boarders Without Borders and Mini Mealtimes, all of which have relied on word-of-mouth marketing to date. NatWest’s investment is expected to drive about 500,000 video views for each ad and roughly 150,000 click-throughs.
MasterPiece helps adults in London to paint mindfully, Boarders Without Borders aims to challenge representations of women of colour in skateboarding and Mini Mealtimes helps parents understand their children’s nutritional needs.
Back Her Business was launched earlier this year in partnership with Crowdfunder and is designed to encourage women to attract crowdfunding and plug the gender gap that characterises entrepreneurialism. NatWest is the only major UK bank to have a female chief executive and it is committed to helping to create 65,000 new women-led businesses in the next five years.
The initiative has also donated ad space to 40 businesses during ad breaks on its Conversations of Inspiration podcast series, while another 10 start-ups have exhibited for free on the NatWest stand at Stylist Live events in London and Manchester this year.
Maeve McMahon, marketing director for business at NatWest, said: "By providing these free advertising opportunities, we’ll drive interest and create a huge boost to each business’ client base.This advertising will fast-track their progress by reaching new customers, helping them to further grow and succeed."
Amy Bradshaw, head of client partnership at VaynerMedia, added: "Rather than shout about how great NatWest’s initiative was, why not let the successful start-ups do that themselves and dedicate valuable space and time to women in business? We are proud to have played a role in supporting female entrepreneurs across the UK."
The work was written by Folarin Akinmade and art directed by Fatima Nota. The video editor was Paul Chamberlain and the production company was GreenRock.
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