SoFi's Campaign Corrects AI's Gender Bias

When it comes to identifying women as financially capable figures, AI isn’t exactly on the money. SoFi, a digital financial services company, came to that conclusion when it prompted AI for images that reflect a person who is “good with money." The result? About a thousand pictures … of which less than 2% were women. Armed with that result and a trove of stats proving the contrary, the company set out to deposit a slew of more representative images into AI while changing some fortunes in the process with its new campaign, “Face of Finance." The digitally focused effort—part of an ongoing initiative aimed at ending gender stereotypes around money—includes a rousing 80-second video set to Coi Leray’s “Players." The campaign, created in-house, debuted recently in Times Square and via a masthead takeover on YouTube. It will get national TV media buys during U.S. Women’s Soccer on TNT, and during the WNBA All-Star game broadcast on ESPN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xzfceq29ts On the eve of the launch, the company hosted a dinner at Nasdaq with creators including author Meena Harris; Tori Dunlap of HerFirst100K; actor Cynthia Bailey; and Vivian Tu, known by more than 1 million followers as Your Rich BFF, who has partnered with SoFi to create content to support the campaign and initiative. "We are so excited to have Vivian Tu—aka Your Rich BFF—as a partner to SoFi,” Lauren Stafford Webb, SoFi’s chief marketing officer, told Adweek. “Vivian is an incredibly talented, credentialed creator in her own right, and together with SoFi, we will help further our mission of helping people achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions through exclusive content collaborations throughout the year and much more." She continued, “With our 'Face of Finance' campaign, SoFi is honored to showcase the strength of women’s financial success and help even more people get their money right to achieve their ambitions." The company, with agency partner The Brand Guild, also activated a pop-up photo booth in the Winter Garden area inside Brookfield Place, an upscale shopping center in New York’s Financial District. Visitors were encouraged to “help change the face of finance” by having their photos taken and generated into AI images, which they could then share on social. A related sweepstakes will dole out tickets to see either Taylor Swift or Beyoncé (two women who have indisputably mastered financial success), when their respective “Eras” and “Renaissance” tours bow at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles later this year. Keep the change (ongoing) Despite previous campaigns by Fidelity recognizing women as viable investors, and efforts made by brands in spirits categories to disrupt search engines’ stunning lack of diversity, the financial sector remains plagued by this patriarchal preset. This is also despite women statistically having stronger-performing investment portfolios, being 90% responsible for managing household financial decisions, and having less credit card debt, personal and auto loans than their male counterparts, per SoFi. In the Old Boys’ Club of Investing, Here’s How Fidelity Used Influencers to Speak Only to Women According to a McKinsey study, women in the U.S. currently control $10.9 trillion in assets and are on track to control much of the $30 trillion in financial assets that baby boomers will possess by 2030. More women are out-earning their husbands than ever before, with 41% of women and 66% of mothers being the breadwinners for their families, and single women owning more homes than single men, per the data. All of which makes the dearth of equitable representation in imagery even more baffling. That said, SoFi recognizes there’s work to do beyond retraining AI. To that end, the brand has created personal finance workshops through Coursera. “At SoFi, we’re on a mission to help our members achieve financial independence to realize their ambitions—and that means all members,” Stafford Webb said in a statement.

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SoFi Corrects AI's Gender Bias in 'Face of Finance' Campaign

The marketing effort includes creator partnerships, education initiatives, and Taylor Swift and Beyoncé concert tickets

Leslie Blount

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Leslie Blount