Capital One's Good Thing Campaign Offers Credit Like Everyone's Watching

Capital One UK has launched today its new brand campaign: ‘One Good Thing’. Capital One UK believes the way to effect real change for the better is to focus on tangible outcomes ‘one small, good thing at a time’.

This is the first work by Fold7, following their appointment in 2021, and brings to life this new and ambitious strategic direction. The launch campaign runs across cinema, Broadcast VoD, outdoor, as well as social media and radio.

The campaign was born out of research which highlighted that 58% of adults don’t trust a brand until they have seen ‘real world proof’ that they have kept their promises*. Against this backdrop of declining trust and scepticism about ‘purpose-washing’ (brands co-opting external narratives around social good, sustainability or other issues to benefit from borrowed credibility and/or goodwill), the core strategic concept of ‘small actions speak louder than big words’ was developed in partnership with Fold7.  

The launch 60 second film, ‘Like Everyone’s Watching’, paints a series of vignettes illustrating the temptation to get away with taking more, giving less, bending the truth, or shirking responsibility when you believe no one is watching.

In the film, we meet a young woman who claims her phone call may be cut off because she is ‘on the train’, when we can see she is in fact ensconced at home in her flat. Elsewhere, an office worker checks for nearby observers before nicking a colleague’s smoothie from the communal fridge. A dad pretends to listen to his daughter’s teacher at parents’ evening, while we can see he’s watching football on his phone under the table. As a group of caterers set up for an event, a waiter steals a prawn canapé from an elaborate prawn tower. A couple realise just too late that they have cut in front of a heavily pregnant woman in a queue but, upon realising, do nothing about it. 

This series of vignettes is then contrasted with Capital One’s promise to “simply always do credit as if everyone is watching”. This promise plays out over a scene of a driver who accidentally damages a car in a deserted car park but who does the right thing anyway, leaving a note with his details. The closing moments of the ad tease the launch of a new visual hero for the brand, a hovering, glowing ‘One’ that emphasises the brand’s ethos - its ‘conscience’ - as manifested in small, good things in the world at large. 

Andrew Clayton, head of brand at Capital One UK, said, “From our commitment to always give customers the APR they’re offered, to account servicing through our award-winning app, great customer experiences are at the heart of how we do business. Our ‘One Good Thing’ campaign brings this to life and highlights how small actions can ladder up to achieve this”.

James Joice, Fold7 said, “Actions speak louder than words when it comes to earning trust and this campaign proves that. We’re delighted to have made a campaign that moves on the conversation about brand purpose.” 

Media was handled by the7stars, and kicks-off with a surge across all BVOD during the launch weekend, with the full 60 second also running across cinema and online video. The OOH plan heroes the new creative and generate mental availability for Capital One UK by using large format, premium digital sites across the country, including Piccadilly Lights with DeepScreen tech to truly bring the creative to life, a Waterloo Domination and London Underground take-overs. Audio will run alongside partnerships with Spotify and Acast, and social focuses on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The campaign will also be supported by PR activation in September, produced by PrettyGreen.