Our goal with the launch of Future Edge
was to enhance Capital One's reputation
as a socially responsible company and a
digital leader.
OUR APPROACH
FUTURE EDGE
TRANSFORMATION DAY
CELEBRITY EXPERT
Capital One focuses $150M
in community grants and
initiatives over five years to
help people succeed in the
ever-changing digital economy.
A launch event celebrating Capital
One’s Future Edge commitment.
Daymond John, celebrity entrepreneur,
served as our launch spokesperson.
He was the keynote speaker at
Transformation Day, led a mentoring
roundtable with the Opportunity Fund
Fellows, conducted media interviews,
and spread the Future Edge word
across his social properties.
BURNING GLASS
RESEARCH
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL
CONTENT
MEDIA RELATIONS
New research commissioned by
Capital One and conducted by
Burning Glass set the direction
and impetus for the Future Edge
initiative and served as a news
hook with media.
Tight media relations led to
program coverage at top–tier
national and regional outlets.
A comprehensive strategy
completed the Future Edge
storytelling through owned
and partner channels.
This approach resulted in some great coverage, and was even recognized by our
friends at the White House – you may be familiar with one these individuals…
FUTURE EDGE LAUNCH HIGHLIGHTS
WHITE HOUSE
As part of President Obama’s TechHire
initiative announcement, Future Edge was
mentioned in the President’s speech and
cited in the White House press release.
“Companies like Capital One are going to
help recruit, train, and employ more
new-tech workers, not out of charity but
because it’s a smart business decision.”
- President Barack Obama
From the White House Blog: “Private sector leaders are
announcing new tools and resources to encourage and
expand continued innovation in technology training, with a
focus on reaching under-served populations. For example,
Capital One, through its FutureEdge initiative, will help to
increase tech skills and hiring, while providing support
tailored to the needs of local communities.”
From White House press release: “Capital One, through
its Future Edge initiative, a $150 million effort that will
help increase tech skills and hiring, will collaborate
with Opportunity@Work to provide support tailored to
the needs of communities.”
TRANSFORMATION DAY
“Future Edge is cutting edge”
We announced and celebrated the launch of
Future Edge on March 5 at the General
Assembly headquarters in NYC with digital
thought leaders like Daymond John, mogul and
star of ABC’s Shark Tank; David Wilkinson,
Director of the White House Office of Social
Innovation; and Kristen Titus, Founding Director
of NYC Tech Talent Pipeline – to name a few.
“This is the kind of effort that the
President had in mind when in his State
of the Union address he called on the
private sector to connect middle-class
Americans with technology jobs.”
David Wilkinson
Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation
Jake Schwartz
CEO and Cofounder of General Assembly
“We’re excited to be working with Capital One on
this initiative… They are truly on the cutting edge
of thinking about the digital skills gap.”
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Since the Future Edge launch, we’ve seen great coverage.
CAPITAL ONE PUTS MONEY
WHERE ITS MOUTH IS WITH
TECH SCHOLARSHIPS
MONEY
$23.76
TECH
SCHOLARSHIPS
“While companies are certainly in a tech-employment
pinch, and pretty much have to hire tech staff from
elsewhere, the real solution–for economic and corporate
health–is to create an educated, trained, employable
American tech workforce. Therefore, Capital One is to
be applauded for putting $150 million against that
goal, as part of its Future Edge program.”
- MediaPost
Daymond John appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box
to discuss the digital skills gap and his involvement
in Capital One’s Future Edge initiative.
RICH FAIRBANK
Quote from press release: "Technology is
158,179,457
TOTAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS
dramatically changing the way we live and
work. Helping people become more
digitally fluent is essential for American
workers and our economy. There is an
insatiable demand for great technology
talent as the rate of change across
industries continues to accelerate. Capital
One's Future Edge initiative will help
motivated individuals build the skills
required to succeed in the digital world.
We are excited about TechHire and the
opportunity, with Future Edge, to support
the President's efforts to expand the talent
pipeline for 21st century jobs."
- Richard D. Fairbank,
Capital One's Founder and Chief Executive Officer
TWITTER BUZZ
BY THE NUMBERS
We launched a new Twitter handle, @YourFutureEdge,
and grew our follower base 12.2% in less than two
weeks. We also retrofitted our Investing for Good
microsite and Facebook page to reflect our new Future
Edge initiative.
Capital One was able to increase our share of voice in
traditional media and social media among banking
competitors on topics related to the digital economy
(e.g., digital skills, digital workforce) from 1%
pre-launch to a dominating 76% post-launch.
SOV l Pre-campaign Launch
BB&T
0.0%
Bank of America
2.0%
TD Bank
0.5%
PNC
0.5%
Sun Trust
54.0%
Wells Fargo
4.0%
Chase
38.0%
Capital One
1.0%
Frost Bank
0.0%
SOV l Post-campaign Launch
Bank of America
3.0%
Sun Trust
7.0%
BB&T
0.0%
PNC
0.5%
TD Bank
1.0%
Wells Fargo
5.0%
Chase
7.0%
Frost Bank
0.0%
Capital One
76.5%
COF ASSOCIATES
Here’s what our associates are saying about Future Edge:
“This is awesome! I am proud
to work in a company that is
dedicated to serving America's
workforce! I look forward to
learning the ways we as
associates can contribute!”
“Really exciting news.
Makes me proud to work for
Capital One!!”
– Jeff Hansen
“A valuable, *much needed*
initiative. Very exciting to
hear the President mention
Capital One in conjunction
with this program!”
–Maria Fafard
– Rhoderick Ramsey V
AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING…
We’ll continue to produce digital and social Future Edge content and conduct national and
regional media relations—all while we prepare for a couple of big announcements.
SparkPlug
This spring, with our Spark partners, we’ll launch our support of BusinessAdvising.org—
an online platform that connects small businesses with mentors.
RockIt
In the fall, we’ll partner with The Garage to launch a new app that will help kids learn
financial literacy skills by managing a rock band.
Future Edge
Other initiatives currently underway include: a video content series, a blog series, an NYC
media tour, and a second wave of research, this time regional, on the digital skills gap.