First run of the app
When you go on a date, first impressions count (so I’ve heard). Whilst opening an investment app on your phone might already be stretching a dating analogy a bit thin, it really could be the beginning of a beautiful, long term, high life time value relationship. When a customer opens your app for the first time it’s where, in the words of Paddy McGuinness, the proof meets the pudding, or something.
In this battle Nutmeg and Wealthsimple, two fintech investment heavyweights go head-to-head to see who’s giving their new, potentially loyal customers the best first run experience.
Nutmeg
Wealthsimple
Nutmeg
First up is Nutmeg with an animated splash screen background featuring: a helicopter shot around London’s Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe if you’re want to use it’s proper name), tickers on a trading floor, a finger pointing a financial dashboard, a close up of a woman's eyelashes, that kind of stuff. A tinted stock background video montage that says We Know Finance.
Tap ’learn more’ and it’s a carousel of benefit messages, written clearly, concisely and delivered in a very straightforward tone. Dig deeper on any of these screens, and you’re switched into lengthy web pages on your phone’s browser (ouch).
First date impressions? Nutmeg is a serious player - a digital wealth manager. Nutmeg has walked into my life dressed in a sharp suit but wants to take me through a briefcase of notes, legal papers and charts. Impressive but I’ve not fallen for them. Yet.
Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple says ‘Invest like an expert’. Yes. Please. I’m no expert but I’d love to invest like one. I’d also love to play piano like an expert and spacewalk like an expert, but already I trust Wealthsimple to help me invest like an expert.
‘Swipe up to learn more’ bounces up and down and I can’t resist but to swipe up. Without leaving the page, this is a scroll through Wealthsimple’s benefits at your own pace. I haven’t seen this technique before and it’s refreshing compared to carousel-swipe-land where most of us live. It works beautifully as you scroll past Wealthsimple’s pleasing, engineered 3D graphic animations. I almost don’t read the messages, because I’m repeatedly watching a coin roll gently down an incline and slip snuggly into a perfectly cut slot.
Wealthsimple has an ex-agency creative as a co-founder and it shows. A considered brand which promises to help people who don't know much about investing, invest. Let’s see where this relationship goes.
