ACORNS ACADEMY

VCU Brandcenter

User Participation Platforms

Team

Claire Snyder (XD), Anna Myers (AD), Smera Dhal (AD)

Timing

2 Weeks

How might we bring the “loud budgeting” community on TikTok to the Acorns app?

Taking inspiration from learning based platform Duolingo, Acorns Academy aims to lower the barriers to entry to a complex and often avoided topic - investing. Acorns Academy seamlessly introduces investing into Mia’s life by blending her media consumption habits with her financial goals.

What is Loud Budgeting anyway?

Coined by TikToker Lukas Battle - who equates the term to the action of sneaking candy into a movie theater - Loud Budgeting is the counter to quiet luxury. For generations, money has been a taboo concept. But thanks to TikTok, taboo topics are going out of style, and finances are well on their way to becoming a shameless conversation topic.

Loud Budgeting

Mia is Type A to a tee: She's highly organized, detail-oriented, and goal-driven, but knows how to have fun. Ambitious in her career, Mia is dedicated to climbing the ladder at her management firm while still making time for nights out. She's a busy bee with big dreams, aiming to move to New York City and achieve financial freedom.

Her hopes: Mia is working towards a promotion to Senior Associate in Manhattan, and she aspires to gain financial control for a successful future.

Her frustrations: While she's great at budgeting, Mia struggles with financial literacy, especially investing. Like many women her age, investing seems like some scary dragon that needs to be conquered. The male-dominated culture of investing platforms makes her feel like an outsider, and she’s determined to conquer this challenge to feel more in control and confident in her life.

Photo courtesy of Midjourney

Meet Mia Chen.

“Investing seems like some scary dragon that needs to be conquered…Investing is one of those things that will make Mia feel like a mature adult in control of her life, rather than an imposter syndrome ridden college grad.”

What steps should we take to address this insight?

People discover something that connects to them on a personal level at the commencement of a new experience
The connection grows deeper via peer-to-peer communication and expanding education around the topic, establishing a solid foundation in the jargon and concepts associated with it.
Their passion grows and motivates them to create content and share opinions, making their interests visible, while less involved volunteers contribute by performing related tasks.
Emerging leaders self-regulate, spreading the fandom's message and becoming discovery points for new fans to enter the cycle.

INTRODUCING

Discovery

By finding Mia and the rest of the Loud Budgeting community on TikTok, we’re meeting them in the middle to pique their interest and welcome them to learn more. Acorns Academy will recruit financial influencers such as Vivian Tu and Natalie Fischer and give them Acorns Graduate badges, certifying that they are a trustworthy source for people like Mia seeking intelligent, but approachable, voices.

Find her where she is

Connection

By finding key words within the comment sections of financial TikTok videos, we utilize functionality that already exists and that the target is familiar with. When they see that these words are highlighted green instead of the blue that they’re used to, their interest will be piqued and lead them to learn something new.

If the user clicks on this green text, a card from Acorns will appear, giving them a bit of financial intel and prompting them to download the app to redeem the Acorn they have earned.

Utilizing existing functionality

Development

Using analogy for implementation

When it comes to application design, reinventing the wheel can do more harm than good. Familiarity often takes the fear out of learning something new. Therefore, Acorns Academy takes something we’re all familiar with - school - and takes inspiration from a successful application based learning model - Duolingo - to lower the barriers to entry to the scary dragon that is investing.

Each “school year” at Acorns Academy is equivalent to earning 25 acorns. The user can earn acorns in many ways including watching lessons, doing flashcards, completing quizzes, and attending office hours and study halls. Once the user has earned 100 acorns, they are considered graduates of Acorns Academy and are given a LinkedIn Certificate to share this accomplishment. These intermittent goals are not only incentives to stay on the app, but it serves as confirmation that they are in fact learning new things.

Generation

How do we get users to stay on the app after they graduate? Our solution: a monthly sharable round up summarizing your investing habits over the last 30 days. While you’re waiting a whole year to get one Spotify Wrapped, why not get 12 Acorns Recaps?!? Mia now has solid proof that she’s conquered the investing dragon!