This bank's $5 million Super Bowl ad slot is not "profit driven"- because even its super rich execs get insomnia worrying about money
2.22 AM is when Hugh S. (Beau) Cummins, III - commercial and business banking executive at SunTrust - woke up last Tuesday worrying about his personal finances.
It's unclear exactly what Cummins earns, but other executives at Sun Trust have salaries upwards of $2 million per year. So if Cummins is worrying about paying the bills, then you probably are too.
That's why SunTrust is launching an advertising campaign at the Super Bowl this year that is "not profit driven," in Cummins' words. The 30-second slot will signal the start of the "onUP movement," a campaign designed to make people commit to improving their personal finances.
"This is a national problem that I personally know. This is my personal statistic. My number is 2.22. Do you know what 2.22 is? That is the time on my clock when I was awoken on Tuesday morning worrying about finances and did not go back to sleep. I'm not proud of that, I wish I'd slept better," Cummins told Business Insider.
"75% of Americans report that they are financially stressed. A large number of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and actually do not have $2,000 dollars in personal savings. They're not prepared for any kind of bumps in the road," he added. "We have a solution to a problem which is bigger than we understand."
SunTrust revealed that its Super Bowl ad - called "Hold Your Breath" - will be an "optimistic, second-by-second reminder that worrying about money can cause you to miss life's important moments." You can watch the teaser here:
Viewers will be encouraged to go to the onUp.com website. Once there, they can take a "Mental Wealth Quiz," before being provided with a "toolkit" to address their personal money problems.
"The Super Bowl ad is a portal for us to launch that movement on a national basis. The demand for this education is greater than we had thought," Cummins said. "We don't seek to make a profit, we seek to cover our costs. This is part of our giving back program, I suppose. This is just doing the right thing."
SunTrust will also launch "Financial Fitness for Companies," aimed at addressing financial well-being in the work place. The 30-second Super Bowl ad will air during the second-half of the Super Bowl, during the two-minute warning commercial break.