The Communicator Awards 2025
Public Relations
X
Challenge.
Everyday consumers of all ages lose time and money to the bad actors behind increasingly sophisticated fraud and scam attempts. In 2023 more than $10B was lost in fraud scenarios, as reported by consumers and the FTC.
But an even more worrisome trend identified and prioritized by Chase Bank has been the impact of fraud and scam among youth and families—particularly during the high-spend back-to-school season.
Last year, families spent a total of $41.5 billion dollars on school shopping, averaging about $890 per household. Aware of the busy season with spikes in transactions at varying locations and retailers, scammers have developed sophisticated tactics to steal personal information and money as families rush to prep kids for the new school year. In response, the FCC issued a warning to students, noting that these scams are difficult to distinguish from legitimate efforts that genuinely seek to assist students.
Goal
Position Chase as the trusted resource for education and advice around fraud and scams specifically targeting students during the back-to-school season.
Goal & Strategy.
Strategy
Craft and implement a multicultural earned media strategy anchored in messaging, resources and audience-centric tips for how to spot tell-tale signs of scams as well as continuously shed light on new fraud tactics emerging on a near daily basis.
Execution
Havas also constantly evolved strategic pitching efforts and angles based on daily news about impacted students. We also worked hand-in-hand with Chase's fraud and scam prevention experts to ensure all messaging conveyed the correct information, balanced with a sense of support and empathy to ensure students and families never feel ashamed to report if they have fallen victim to a fraud or scam.
01
02
03
Havas prioritized detailed research for the right consumer lifestyle, technology, and business publications that would enable Chase to disseminate critical tips and warning messages that would resonate with parents and students, operating strategically within the industry regulations of not being able to target youth directly.
In the months leading up to the hype of back-to-school season, Havas crafted compelling media pitches leveraging industry data and offering insights from Chase’s fraud and scam prevention experts. Proactive outreach centered around sharing actionable tips that were hyper-specific to last year's textbook rental and school supplies shopping scams, scholarship and financial aid scams, student identity theft, roommate scams, and tech support scams. We also adapted pitches for outreach to Spanish-language publications to ensure we reached a diverse set of students and their families.
Spotlight Stories
“Scammers target students with loans, pretending to be from a reputable company, bank, or a government agency, promising student loan forgiveness.”
– Darius Kingsley
"You'll find a lot of websites online that say they have textbooks, but the reality is a lot of them are fake, and you don't know what you'll get. It could say '2021 edition' but in reality it's ancient."
– Darius Kingsley
"Back-to-school is a great moment to speak with kids and young adults about ways to protect themselves as they launch into the world, and engage on shopping and online activity for back to school."
– Darius Kingsley
Es vital que los padres se mantengan en constante comunicación con sus hijos acerca de los peligros de las estafas y las mejores prácticas sobre el uso de la tecnología. Chase comparte las estafas relacionadas al regreso a clases y consejos sobre cómo evitarlas.
Back-to-School Season Program Results
31
Placements
331M
Impressions
17 English
14 Spanish
100%
Positive Sentiment