SoFi - Great Loans for Great People

Five-year-old lender SoFi made its first Super Bowl ad buy in 2016, a 30-second spot that was part of a larger $20 million, six-month campaign. The spot, by Muhtayzik Hoffer in San Francisco, looks around at passers-by and pleasantly decrees some of them “great” but most of them not. Super Bowl viewers don’t know what the criteria is, but you try to guess. Once SoFi reveals itself as a lender and invites viewers to its website to see if you’re great, checking credit scores has never seemed so fun. On the subject of viewers’ greatness, the ad’s original version concluded that “you’re probably not,” an entertaining note of we-might-not-even-want-your-business on a night otherwise pulling out the spots to win over consumers. But before game time, the company decided it wasn’t authentic to the brand promise of “identifying greatness in people” and axed the kicker. “Great Loans for Great People” features Brandon Williams, who took out a SoFi personal loan to renovate his condo. The ad (in its original, slightly rude version) was released Jan. 26. One day later, Quicken Loans released its Super Bowl 50 ad, “What We Were Thinking.” The following week, the game’s third Super Bowl lender, SunTrust, posted its “Hold Your Breath.” SoFi came back to the Super Bowl in 2017 through a bit of a fluke: It got time in the game’s first overtime in 51 years (“Together”). Director: Marc Forster. Production Company: Tool. Executive creative directors: John Matejczyk, Jay Berry. Associate creative directors: Adam Ledbury, Guy Lemberg. Writers: Rob Katzenstein, Marc D’Avignon. Head of production: Michelle Spear Nicholson. Senior producer: Jona Goodman Suarez. Producer: Megan Ubovich. Account director: Noel McKenzie-Johnson. Account supervisor: Veronika Luquin Campbell. Record and final mix: Eleven. Music: Squeaky Clean. Visual effects and color: Framestore. Editorial: Arcade. Editor: Kim Bica. BRAND: SoFi YEAR: 2016 AGENCY: Muhtayzik Hoffer SUPERBOWL: 50 QUARTER AIRED: Q1

SoFi - Great Loans for Great People

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