Well, it's that time of year again, when all the best commercials come out (have heard there is also a football game, but cannot confirm). If you've been as diligent about watching them as I have, you're probably wondering — what is SoFi, anyway? In case you already don't know what I'm talking about, SoFi stands for Social Finance, Inc., and they're one of those lucky few who snagged a coveted Super Bowl ad spot for 2016. That's a pretty big deal, since this year, for Super Bowl 50, ads are going for around $5 million a pop. And it's made even more interesting by the fact that I haven't really heard of SoFi before, or their idea of "a bank-less world." So what's their deal?
SoFi is a five-year old financial startup created by four students from the Stanford Business School, who wanted to make lending a little more personal, removing the "too big to fail" banks. They started by encouraging Stanford alumni to re-invest in its current students by providing them with student loans, under the assumption that, having been in the same situation themselves, the alums would have added incentive to see their younger counterparts succeed. When that theory proved successful — their inaugural program in 2011 was $2 million — they expanded into mortgages, personal loans, parent loans, and wealth management, in addition to their original flavors of student loans and refinancing. As of September 2015, SoFi claims to have provided over $4 billion in loans.
So this company is gaining clout fast, particularly with young professionals, whom SoFi wants to encourage toward success with lower-than-market rates and a qualification program that relies more on "a holistic view of their financial wellbeing," according to their site, rather than a traditional three-digit credit score. And, if this hasn't been illuminating enough for you yet, SoFi's Chief Operating Officer Joanne Bradford urges you to watch the commercial, because that's exactly why the company sprang for it:
We felt it was the right time to make the investment to tell who we are and what the brand stands for. The Super Bowl is the most effective buy that exists out there.
Pretty big risk, to throw that amount of cash at just getting their face out there, but I'm talking about SoFi right this very minute, so it totally worked. Check out the spot below, and decide for yourself if you think it was worth it.
Image: SoFi/YouTube
