User Research, Champagne, and Hope for 2021

Our ‘Toast Mode’ campaign did just that, giving our community some much needed good vibes and a few useful insights about their 2020 spending, all with the goal of helping them make better financial decisions in 2021.

Today, we’ve got Cleo User Researcher, Maeve Jennings, on the hot seat to talk about the experience

What were we hoping to achieve with our ‘Toast Mode’ campaign?

We wanted to show our audience where their money was coming from, and where it was going in a fun and engaging way. Without that info, they’d be walking into the New Year with a financial blindfold. But now, we’ve given them the power to really help themselves. They can access their spending data through Cleo at any time but presenting it in this way added to the impact.  

How did you gather the insights behind the campaign??

We have a huge amount of data available to us, but we know that numbers don’t tell the whole story. So, we asked our community in detail about their year and listened to how they felt it went for them. We really do care about how they’re doing, and want to help them with their financial goals. What better way to understand them than by talking to them one-on-one, virtually of course!

Did any of your research surprise you?

I was most excited that 90% of Cleo users' perspective on savings changed for the better in 2020. That’s a huge number and it’s amazing to see that it’s something becoming more attainable and our work can help make a difference. Recently, we’ve been speaking a lot to our community about how we can help them more with their savings goals, and there are some super exciting things to come in 2021.

Wow - love this positive attitude! How have you been keeping this up at Cleo?

It was definitely tough at times but knowing everyone was in this together was something that helped me through. At Cleo we’ve been doing lots of virtual events like chocolate tasting, murder mysteries and life drawing classes, so having these social events and all the good vibes that came with them was something to look forward to. It felt like having a night out without the out part.

Ok so what are you looking forward to most at Cleo in 2021?

We’ve recently grown our user research function at Cleo so I’m excited to become even more user-focused as a company. This will allow us to not only speak to more people but also carry out incredibly  focused research to make sure we’re building tools that cater to the needs of our users and help improve their financial health. We want to make sure they are at the centre of every decision we make and in 2021 this will be a huge priority, so I’m really looking forward to that!

Like what you see? Find more about the campaign with our 2020 user insights report or explore opportunities at Cleo on our careers site.