The team of Cleo fintech service believes that budget management does not have to be boring. This app is aimed at a younger audience and it interacts with them like an older sister: caring, but sarcastic.

The chatbot can even “grill” a wasteful user. Earl Myers, head of copywriting at Cleo AI, has told how his team created the voice of the brand.

“If you look at other fintech projects, only few offer options outside of the ordinary. The voice of the brand is our main unique selling point,” Myers said as quoted by Rusbase.

This approach can provide an advantage in a very competitive market. Cleo has already gained 4 million users. This is what makes up the image of this brand.

Bold humor. Unlike traditional financial management services, this fintech has a “grilling mode”. The chatbot can outright shame a user by using GIFs and sarcastic comments to tell how much they have spent and how little they have saved.

Irony. Cleo retains an ironic tone even outside the “grilling mode”. For example, it might report spending on Amazon and Uber as an achievement, to the terror of frugal consumers.

Active position. Gen Z expects that brands have an opinion on important social or political issues and express it actively. And Cleo does just that. For example, the company’s blog has a post about singer Britney Spears and unfair custody of her. In the statement, Cleo supports her and “all women who cannot control their lives or finances by no means of their own choosing.”

Earl says that his team places great emphasis on boundaries in order to have freedom within them. First of all, Cleo will not criticize a user for poor financial decisions until it gets a permission from the user. The app requires consent for the “grilling mode”.

Cleo’s job is to help the user develop smart spending and saving habits. However, these services have too many annoying notifications, and in the end, they are simply turned off. Cleo tries not to bother the user by adhering to some of the most important values - intelligence, honesty, empathy, and humor.

As the head of copywriting, Earl maintains consistent content quality. “Of all the companies I have worked for, there are two things Cleo does the best. One is the study where all writers meet on Fridays. This is a completely open process: everyone is together. And I think this is very important,” he says.

The other thing is the search for writers that would live a breathe Cleo. Earl notes that it is difficult to write from the first person’s perspective, and the company prefers writers who are similar to Cleo in terms of personality.

“Gen Z stands out by its strong dislike for hypocrisy, recognition of individual truths, pragmatic approach, and respect for resistance to established norms. Cleo has managed to attract that audience, because the app acts and communicates with the world by the principles of Gen Z. The brand’s creative approach has secured success for it,” Rusbase reports.

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