Honey

Brand & Campaign strategy

The Ask

Honey is a smart shopping assistant that finds coupon codes at checkout on any e-commerce site, gives users cash back on purchases at participating retailers and allows them to track when prices drop on items they’d like to purchase. It’s a simple product with a delightful output: instant access to the $7 billion brands offer in online coupons each year.

There are more than 12 million Honey users around the world, but very few of them engage with the brand beyond using the plugin to find discounts. To remedy that, Honey asked us to make a statement that would get the attention of the media, influencers and the world, while driving downloads of Honey.

Why I Love This Project

This project was a unique challenge. When the client briefed us, we were told the Honey brand was all about fairness, but we soon realized fairness was an issue too complex for them to own. We had to pivot quickly to a new strategic direction.

It gave me a chance to flex a variety of strategy muscles, including survey design, focus group moderation, interviewing and writing target personas.

Plus, we won the pitch!

The Investigation

Honey was founded with the goal of making the world more fair for shoppers, so we set out to define what that really meant. Through a survey, a focus group, one-on-one interviews, and secondary research, we learned a lot about what people think is — and isn’t — fair.

“Time is fair because no one can control that.” — Sally
“Coin flips are fair.” — Art
“Google search is fair because everyone has access to the same information.” — Jim

“Genetics are unfair because you can’t pick your family.” - Art
“It’s not fair that people have more money than I do.” - Gloryah
“Some people are given unfair opportunities in life, like Kylie Jenner.” — Anna

The Insight

We learned that fairness is subjective. If someone has it better, that tends to be seen as unfair. When you ask people about fairness, what they’re really talking about is jealousy — something they want to have remedied with equal opportunity.

The Pivot

If people tend to revert to jealousy when they think of fairness, what can Honey own that’s in line with their brand?

Our interview subjects and focus group participants expressed a desire for equal opportunities, and Honey does just that by providing all its users access to all of the same discount and pricing information. They level the playing field between retailers and consumers by saving consumers both time and money.

The Strategy

Honey provides shoppers equal opportunity to save time and money in a simple, delightful experience.

The Concept

The internet is full of money. Honey is your resource for discovering it.

The campaign will focus on finding money in unexpected places. We’ll kick it off by planting a Honey-branded news stand in New York City, which will allow us to control the experience.

Some customers who visit the news stand will be find a delightful surprise hiding in their morning paper.

Randomly distributed copies of the paper will feature a center spread filled with real cash.

We’ll also create a sidewalk-level billboard wallpaper with real cash.

Passersby can peel away the bills to reveal the message underneath.

Once the cash is gone, Honey’s message still remains.

We’ll place similar peel-off ads in subway cars.

They’ll reveal just a couple of dollars, but sill provide a simple and delightful surprise to the people who find them.

Once again, the final message from Honey remains even after the cash is gone.

We’ll set up vending machines that feature great deals — but you can only use it if you download the Honey app.

All of these executions can also be translated into social media content to help spread the word about Honey.

The Team

Co-Strategist: Joe Castagna
Creative Brand Managers: Ashley Devereaux & Jacob Steckmann
Copywriter: Josh Perry
Art Director: Joe Jones