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When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March, the media industry braced itself for a wave of related fallout, as the financial institution had played a critical role in financing many of the technology companies that facilitate the flow of digital advertising.
But shortly after the meltdown, a few publishers—all within or adjacent to the world of finance—soon found themselves experiencing a welcome, if a surprising turn of events: an uptick in advertising spend from regional banks looking to capitalize on the opportunity to grab more market share.
In March, The Wall Street Journal saw a nearly 300% year-over-year increase in campaign volume from regional banks looking to reassure the business community of their reliability, said Katie Weber, its senior vice president of commercial strategy and head of financial services.
And at The Information, the week after SVB collapsed, leads from financial services firms rose more than 30% compared to its previous four-week average, said founder and editor-in-chief Jessica Lessin.
In addition to drumming up new business, the sense of precarity created by the implosion of SVB also spurred a shift in the kind of messaging banks sought to communicate.
At The Atlantic, the wealth management arms of a number of large banks moved to emphasize and project their financial stability, said publisher Alice McKown. Likewise, at The Financial Times, existing clients shifted their objectives in the wake of the crisis, said vice president of advertising Brendan Spain.
“The change we’ve seen is that, broadly, financial services companies are mentioning ‘stability,’ ‘risk management’ and ‘diversification’ a lot more during the briefing and request for proposal process,” Spain said.
Banks saw necessity and opportunity, and savvy publishers obliged
This counter-intuitive twist underscores the ways in which nimble publishers can help themselves by recognizing and accommodating a sudden shift in their clients’ needs.
As the collapse of SVB demonstrated, the banking industry relies on customer trust and significantly struggles without it.
