Varo Money was set to change banking as we know it – they just needed to raise the capital to support their vision.

The question was how?

In July 2017, Varo applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for a national bank charter, which would allow Varo to deliver on its promise of offering its customers nationwide access to a full range of products and solutions and the highest standards of consumer protection. If approved, Varo would become the first national bank in the U.S. designed for people who want to bank on their smartphones.

The PR team knew we would need to get ahead of the public disclosure if we were to influence the media’s reaction. We convinced regulators to agree on a specific time and medium for making the disclosure and to allow advance briefings with top media we knew would be reporting on it.

Since we knew downstream media would take cues from the positioning given by first reports from top reporters/influencers, we created a snowball effect by seeding them with consumer benefits, a friendly video of the CEO explaining a customer-first message, and consumer spokespeople – all timed to coincide with a major speech from OCC that might have sparked additional negative coverage from the original SoFi story on its own.

Following the announcement, we released consumer research on what millennials are looking for from their bank, before they become parents and how the gender pay gap influences spending – all tactics and topics that we found from direct research would drive downloads and new accounts.