At Ally, we’re obsessed with our customers. Truly. With award-winning service recognized by Newsweek’s 2025 #1 Online Bank for "Best Customer Service," we demonstrate our allyship at every level by doing right by everyone. Because Ally isn’t just who we are, it’s what we do.
But today, social media has given us a front row seat to a troubling trend: the breakdown of customer service. From both sides, we’re witnessing a collapse in communication where everyone seems fed up. Consumers feel unheard and unsupported, while service employees feel disrespected and mistreated. The banking industry is no exception, with the divide growing and leaving both sides on isolated, opposing islands.
To help heal this broken relationship, we brought back one of our favorite Thanksgiving initiatives: Banksgiving. Originally launched in 2018, this film showcases the heart and soul of Ally – our call center – and the incredible allyship they demonstrate every day.
But the media landscape has changed since then, so we knew the best way to reintroduce this story with a fresh twist was to take it to social. Our goal was simple: show how Ally is bridging the empathy gap in customer service by showing what banking looks like when you truly care.
We've all heard the words "Would you like to take a brief survey?” at the end of a customer service call. Sometimes you say no. Other times you generously say yes only to be met with a dull, automated experience. But what if we turned that annoyance into the best call you’ve ever had?
This Banksgiving we did just that by flipping the script on the traditional customer satisfaction survey – typically designed to help companies – and reimagined it as a survey designed to help customers instead. We called it: The Banksgiving Survey.
Our call center representatives invited customers to participate in a special survey where participants were surprised and delighted with cash funds to help with their wants and needs.
Social was the perfect stage to bring this story to life. It’s a place where people naturally come to air their grievances – especially customer service experiences – giving us the chance to intercept the conversation. TikTok and Instagram allowed us to connect with a younger, social-first audience in a format designed to feel fresh and relatable while still packing an emotional punch. However, the challenge was to balance the shorter, punchier social format with the depth and emotion of the original Banksgiving. We wanted to honor the vulnerable and heartfelt stories our customers shared without reducing them to soundbites.
To do this, we developed a content strategy that allowed the campaign to unfold in layers:
Banksgiving was designed to embody Ally’s values of care, empathy, and allyship. Every detail had to feel deeply authentic, reflecting what it truly means to bank with Ally.
Timing added complexity. Launching the campaign post-election amidst emotional uncertainty required us to walk a fine line. The story needed to feel uplifting and apolitical while aligning with the warmth and gratitude of Thanksgiving.
If that wasn’t enough, we brought the entire campaign from briefing to launch in just eight weeks.
In the end, Banksgiving was not just another campaign, it was proof of what it means to be an ally. Through meaningful storytelling and thoughtful execution, we showed the world what happens when a bank puts people first, turning small moments into unforgettable ones.
Bringing Banksgiving back was exactly the feel-good moment our brand needed at the end of 2024. Not only did we generate considerable external momentum, but also a moment of extreme pride for all Ally employees, especially our frontline workers.
Our priority channel for this campaign was social. We saw record breaking engagement across both Instagram and TikTok throughout the campaign:
Banksgiving also received over 4.4MM impressions in media coverage across several high-visibility publishers like Adweek, WSJ and Media Post.
