Crashing the Gates of Investing: How AJ Bell Built a Brand Platform That Rings Loud

Investment platform AJ Bell returned to screens in January with ‘Investing is for Everyone’, a new campaign from Pablo that tackles one of the category’s most persistent barriers: the perception that investing is reserved for the wealthy.

The work builds directly on 2023’s ‘Feel Good, Investing’, which tripled brand awareness to 60.2 per cent by establishing the bell as a distinctive brand asse reinforced by a rework of Anita Ward’s ‘Ring My Bell’. Rather than pivoting, AJ Bell has evolved the platform.

Research by AJ Bell conducted with investors at different levels revealed that, despite growing interest in taking control of personal finances, many still view investing as intimidating and exclusionary. That perception can prevent people from starting — and leaves others feeling they don’t belong.

The new film dramatises that tension. Set in exaggerated worlds of extreme wealth — mega yachts, private jets and crypto excess — affluent characters claim investing is “for people like us” before being interrupted by an AJ Bell customer crashing through the scene on a giant bell. The message is clear: investing isn’t exclusive. It’s accessible.

The campaign signals AJ Bell’s continued ambition to broaden participation in investing while reinforcing the distinctive brand assets that have driven its recent growth.

But sustaining a platform in financial services requires more than a memorable device. AJ Bell’s chief marketing officer and Pablo's creative director Charlie Gee talk about building a long-term brand in a short-term category, confronting investing’s exclusivity head on, and why consistency — not constant reinvention — is proving to be the smarter bet.

Stephen Vowles, CMO, AJ Bell

At what point did you realise that investing’s biggest barrier isn’t knowledge — it’s belonging?

We did some research a few years ago that underlined that there’s a lack of investing culture in the UK, to many people it feels like a world that is totally off limits. We found even many experienced investors felt they didn’t belong in the world of investing. Many people couldn’t really see themselves in this world of investing. One seasoned investor even stated ‘I’m a little frightened. I’m a little fish in a big pond’. And for those who were new investors or were yet to invest, this was even further exacerbated. It was really clear that most people simply felt they didn’t belong in this world, and as a result a huge barrier went up. So whilst the rest of the category focused on logic — cheaper, faster, better — we saw the real opportunity was emotional. People didn’t need more facts. They needed to feel good enough to interact with investing at all. Our role was to create a world they felt welcome to join. This led to our brand platform: 'AJ Bell = Feel good, investing'.

This campaign breaks category codes with humour and provocation. What risks were you actively willing to take and which ones genuinely made you nervous?

Redefining the category codes of investment communications didn’t feel like a risk; it was a simple decision. At the core of AJ Bell is an organisation who disrupted the investment platform market, so to do the same in our marketing felt in keeping with who we are as a business and a brand. And whilst we embrace humour and a ‘bombastic’ tone that’s distinct from any other players in the category, that doesn’t take away from the fact that behind this sits a very serious mission to help more people invest; for the good of the individuals investing their hard earned wealth, and for the benefits to the economy in general. Doing anything that doesn’t directly support this mission would feel like the biggest risk to take.

The fact we had one take on a giant bell crashing through a fake wall in a stately home late into a shoot day in Lithuania was a calculated risk that certainly generated some nerves, but luckily the brilliant production team pulled it off.

Has the campaign to date influenced customer behaviour in unexpected ways?

The campaign has been phenomenally successful so far, with the first outing of ‘Feel good investing’ leading to awareness tripling, consideration also tripling, and brand preference surging. Our customer numbers and the ‘assets under administration’ (sorry just one bit of financial jargon) have also exceeded their targets. So more people know us, more people like us, more people are investing with us, and more people are thinking that they just might. All things we might fully expect, but perhaps not to the extent that we’ve seen. Knowing more people feel like they can take the leap into the wonderful world of investing is a rewarding feeling.

How do you plan to sustain or build on the message throughout the year?

2026 will be the biggest year of marketing investment to date for AJ Bell, so expect to see us popping up more often and in more places than ever before. What’s important to us as a business, and critical to really helping more people to join the world of investing, is that as a brand we take action to truly help everyone feel good investing. We’ve only just scratched the surface, and there is much more we can be doing, so, expect to see us walk the walk as well as talking the talk. And perhaps to see more bells crashing into unexpected scenarios.

Charlie Gee, CD, Pablo

What was the insight that made you see investing not as complicated but culturally closed off?

Most people in the UK don’t see investing as complicated — they see it as closed off. There’s a real sense that it’s a club for the already-wealthy.

When people picture investing, they don’t see themselves. They see red-faced men in pinstripes behind velvet ropes, laughing about how rich they are. Everyone else is left outside, noses pressed to the glass, thinking, “That’s not for me.”

Once you realise that, the job isn’t to simplify investing — it’s to open the door. Or encourage them to kick it in.

The bell smashing into elite spaces is loud and unapologetic. Why did subtlety feel like the wrong answer here?

Why should regular people be polite, tiptoeing in and standing at the back, while the 0.0001% stuff fistfuls of financial foie gras into their bulging pockets? They’re crashing the party — because they have every right to be there. No permission sought. No permission given.

Financial advertising often hides behind reassurance. How did you convince yourselves - and the client - that confidence could come from humour instead?

There are few phrases guaranteed to make me instantly put my clothes back on quicker than “check out this new financial services ad”.

In a category that defaults to corporate risk-aversion, humour shows a brand is genuinely comfortable with its subject matter. You don’t joke about things you don’t understand.

Humour fundamentally changes how brands are perceived. Wit reads as confidence because it signals intelligence and self-assurance — the confidence to communicate clearly without shouting or over-explaining.

How did direction, sound and pacing turn a simple metaphor into something with real cultural bite?

We loved Gustav [Sundström] because he does as much as possible in camera and on location. That’s increasingly rare at a time when CG is getting faster and fitter by the nanosecond.

His approach was bang on. He made the idea feel real and anarchic. Not smoothed out and polished, sticking-out jankily from the even, rounded-off samey-sameness of advertising. He made it abrasive and physical.

The spot is packed with obnoxious oligarchs and antagonistic, gate-crashing customers — who, crucially, are our heroes. We talk too much about disruption (vomit) in advertising, but when you have a 200-kilo concrete bell smashing through an auction hall where billionaires are bidding six figures on a sandwich, you’re not messing about.

The sound design doubles down on that. We deliberately used harsh, repetitive music with hard cuts — taking AJ Bell’s most distinctive brand asset and using it aggressively. That combination of direction, sound and pacing is what gives the campaign its cultural bite and makes the idea feel like a real impact. Democratising the investing world.

Was there a moment — a reaction, a comment, a test screening — where you knew the work had landed?

Ask our phenomenal strategist and they’ll point to the fact that it absolutely crushed it in System1. But the truth is, everyone who watched it just chuckled throughout.

It’s a very simple, smart creative strategy masquerading as a big, dumb, fun one. It doesn’t talk up or down to anyone — it’s just an anarchic romp that tramples through people’s yachts, private runways and stately homes.

Who among us hasn’t wanted to slap these people in the face with a fish? Well, we did it — and it’s pretty cathartic.

If this campaign is a provocation to the category, what behaviour are you challenging other finance brands to rethink?

Why so serious? If the barrier to people investing is intimidation, then don’t intimidate them. Give them a hug. Tell them a joke, or take them for a Wimpy meal. Don't bore them to tears or behave like a high street undertaker.

Make people feel like investing isn’t a big deal — because it isn’t. It’s not risky if you’re sensible. What is risky is leaving your money in cash. Or, in my case, under a mattress.

Which reminds me, I really should open an AJ Bell ISA...