Because this is what happens when a bank chooses joy

Because this is what happens
when a bank chooses joy ↓

Watch Nationwide's latest advert and you'll think it's about a £100 bonus. It isn't. It's about something bigger. It's about the future of business shifting right under our noses.

The advert follows the owner of the fictional A.N.Y. Bank when his driver calls in sick, he's forced to catch the Tube and walk through the city. Everywhere he looks people are smiling, chatting and enjoying their day. He can't make sense of what he's seeing.

Eventually he turns to his assistant and asks:
"Why is everybody so horribly chipper today?"

It's a brilliant line because it tells you everything about him without needing to explain a thing. To him, happiness is suspicious, warmth is weakness and kindness is inefficient. He's the embodiment of an old corporate mindset that believed professionalism meant emotional distance and business should be serious at all costs.

The reveal - Nationwide has given £100 to four million members. Again.

The £100 itself isn't the story. The real story is the ripple effect. One decision by a business creates millions of tiny wonder(mo)ments. A smile on the Tube, a lighter walk to work and a happier conversation. The advert doesn't show money moving. It shows mood moving and mood has a habit of spreading.

That's why I love this. It proves something I've long believed.
Joy doesn't make a business less serious. It makes it more human.

Nationwide hasn't stopped being a bank. It still protects money, detects fraud and arranges mortgages. What it's realised is that being serious about what you do doesn't mean you have to be emotionally distant while you're doing it. Many businesses still haven't learned this lesson.

For decades we've confused professionalism with coldness. As if smiling somehow reduces credibility. As if making people feel good distracts from doing good business. This advert turns that thinking on its head.

It doesn't tell us Nationwide is a better bank. It shows a world that's a little better because Nationwide exists. That's what the very best brands do. They don't tell people how good they are.
They show people how much better life is because they exist.
People don't buy your business. They buy the better life your business helps create.

This is what my philosophy Stratejoy™ is all about. It's not about making brands more cheerful. It's about intentionally designing emotional outcomes that create commercial value. When you make people's lives better, even slightly, you don't just create customers. You create stories, advocates and loyalty.

You create return on feeling.

That's the biggest shift happening in business today. The old definition was simple. Maximise shareholder value. The new definition is even simpler. Create value for the people you exist to serve. Because when your business means more to people it does more and it makes more.

That's Stratejoy™.

Curious what Stratejoy could do for your business? Drop me a line

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