Having already tried radio and outdoor advertising as a means to encourage older, high net worth customers to use its app, a UK bank found a solution in newspaper crossword clues.

The story of Lloyds Bank’s success is told by European advocacy Print Power: Lloyds wanted to retain its most affluent customers, but wanted to use online services.

“These high value customers tended to be older, affluent, educated individuals. But they were more likely to distrust or even fear online banking, thinking it was unsafe and complicated,” says the group’s Ulbe Jelluma. “As the high street saw more and more branch closures, and there was growing competition to lure customers into switching banks, getting customers online was becoming an ever-more pressing problem that needed prompt action.”

A printed paper’s crossword page was identified as the perfect contextual environment in which they could target those same customers. A campaign in the puzzle section of the Daily Telegraph – popular with the “financially sophisticated demographic” – was chosen because studies had chosen its audience was ten times more likely to do newspaper crosswords and its puzzle pages received the highest dwell time of any other page in the paper.

NewsWorks research in 2017 had also shown older readers trusted print, and 76 per cent of readers trusted the quality newspaper they read.

Agency MediaCom partnered the Telegraph in a Lloyds Banking Group campaign, piquing the puzzlers’ interest with a series of ten 15 x 15 square crossword-related print ads which revealed features of the app as answers. The ads ran on weekday and weekend pages, while the answers over the page ran alongside instructions on where to learn more about the app and its features.

The series of cryptic crossword clues was written by the newspaper’s editorial team, and proved key in transforming their view of online banking. One clue read: ‘Sort deliverable format out for warning when balance is low (9, 6, 6)’. The answer, over the page, was: ‘Overdraft mobile alerts.’

Proof that the crosswords provided the confidence boost the customers needed came when the ads were found to be five times more effective than any other of their app campaigns, with 65 per cent of Telegraph readers agreeing the creative was ‘informative, grabbed their attention and clever.’

After seeing the ad, 56 per cent of readers visited the Lloyds Bank website and 51 per cent learned more about the features. And more importantly, 44 per cent used or downloaded the app. Presenting a familiar 'System 2' challenge to this older, more sophisticated segment was three times more effective at nudging them towards a completely new task.

No Lloyds app campaign had ever achieved double digits for trial numbers.

MediaCom and Lloyds Bank Group’s Crossword Clues campaign went on to win the ‘best use of insight’ prize and the chair’s award for best overall campaign at the NewsWorks 2021 planning awards.

“It’s all too easy to infantilise older, technophobe customers, but rather than talking down to them, they respectfully appealed to their sharp intellect for solving cryptic clues,” says Lloyds marketing communications director Richard Warren. “The idea being, that if they’re smart enough to decipher these tricky brainteasers, they’re smart enough to use a banking app. We are proud that we were able to use an innovative, contextually relevant creative and media solution to engage a valuable but often overlooked audience.”