Ever since Zendrive and MoneyLion announced their partnership, MoneyLion, a popular app that’s giving everyone the power to make their best financial decisions, has been giving their users a chance to save on a big expense: auto insurance. MoneyLion is leveraging Zendrive’s IQL solution to power their growing Driver Score program.
We recently checked in with MoneyLion’s Ali Jabini, VP of Product, to better understand MoneyLion's objectives with this partnership, key challenges they faced, results they’ve seen so far, and how they plan to continue to further grow the program.
With a focus on making the Driver Score a daily destination, MoneyLion anticipates a significant impact on app performance and user base growth, paving the way for a brighter financial future for its users. Here’s what Ali had to say.
Could you provide an overview of the MoneyLion app and its primary objectives? How does it serve your users?
MoneyLion’s mission is to give everyone the power to make their best financial decisions. Our goal is to fuel the American dream and enable millions of people to live their best money life. That’s why we offer solutions for everyone, regardless of their financial situation. We do this through products, content, and community building features.
For products, we want to help people for whatever stage in their financial journey — so we offer financial products to help them bank, borrow, invest, save, and protect their money. For education, our goal is to shorten the distance between learning and taking action. We have all types of content from experts, peers, and more to help our users learn about all things money.
For the community building features, we are fostering a space for the best money conversations. MoneyLioners have access to a supportive and friendly group to help them understand their finances better.
Since we want to reach all Americans, we saw a perfect opportunity with Zendrive to power our Driver Score project. As a majority of Americans own a car, we wanted to help them save money on a big expense. That’s where Zendrive’s IQL program to use telematics to save them money on auto insurance made sense. We’re excited to continue this partnership!
What motivated you to integrate Zendrive's IQL program into your mobile application? How did the partnership with Zendrive align with MoneyLion’s business goals and objectives?
First, we wanted to expand beyond lending and provide our users with additional products and services that were not lending-specific.
Now, why Zendrive and why this partnership? We have a lot of data on our users, and through conversations we had with the users as well as just looking at the breadth of data that we have, we noticed that our users are actually spending a lot of money on auto-related expenses, like at gas stations or on insurance payments.
The IQL program, or our Driver Score program, allows users to both track their driving behavior and potentially save on auto insurance premiums, aligning with our goal to help users with their financial needs and goals.
“The IQL program, or our Driver Score program, allows users to both track their driving behavior and potentially save on auto insurance premiums, aligning with our goal to help users with their financial needs and goals.”
How would you describe the level of communication, collaboration, and support received from Zendrive throughout this partnership?
I would say it's been very good. I don't know that it could be any better, to be quite honest with you.
One thing I do love about Zendrive is they're always looking to be partners versus just providers on how we can grow steps to take. The Zendrive team has done an amazing job and is always questioning the status quo and what our teams can do better from both the marketing side and the product side, which has been great.
“The Zendrive team has done an amazing job and is always questioning the status quo and what our teams can do better from both the marketing side and the product side.”
How has the IQL program helped in personalizing user experiences within your app? Any notable instances or examples?
Providing users with a driver score, insights into how many trips they’ve taken and miles they’ve driven, and metrics around how they’re driving when it comes to things like hard braking and acceleration….these are all interesting insights that have helped us personalize the app and the user experience.
We took this a bit further when we introduced badges for users who reached certain stages of the funnel – similar to the success criteria badges you get in other apps. These badges have been extremely interesting and helpful in personalizing our experience
“[Driver Score] badges have been extremely interesting and helpful in personalizing our experience.”
For a short time, we were also allowing users to add details about their vehicles – the year, the make, the model, which was yet another personalization point revolving around this IQL experience. We've since sunsetted that to then work on a different version of it. But these are the areas that have been super interesting from a personalization perspective. And there's a lot more ground to cover there.
That said, Driver Score is something that the user can really control and change directly. We are looking for more experiences like that, where the app feels unique to the user. We want the user to feel that all content, products, and services are built around their customized financial background.
“Driver Score is something that the user can really control and change directly. We are looking for more experiences like that, where the app feels unique to the user. We want the user to feel that all content, products, and services are built around their customized financial background.”
And auto is such a key component of Zendrive’s focus area, so we’re excited to extend that idea of personalization across all parts of MoneyLion.
Can you speak a little bit about some of the campaigns that you saw success with in promoting the program?
We've been experimenting with two types of campaigns. First, we were running sweepstakes to get people to stay connected over the trial period. More recently, what we found to be more successful in getting people inside the program and activating are contests.
We've experimented with the first one-hundred users who sign up for Zendrive, rewarding them with a small Amazon gift card. We've seen really big, 2-3X spikes from these contests. Our team is always trying to experiment on the amount and the frequency of the contests, but these are the campaigns that we've been really trying to activate in the early part of the journey.
“We've experimented with the first one-hundred users who sign up for Zendrive, rewarding them with a small Amazon gift card. We've seen really big, 2-3X spikes from these contests. Our team is always trying to experiment on the amount and the frequency of the contests, but these are the campaigns that we've been really trying to activate in the early part of the journey.”
What we've also done is try to increase the number of touchpoints to get people to understand the value of Zendrive, finding ways to explain the product a little bit better and share the value over time. And then in periods where they may lose interest, we’re finding ways to restart and reactivate them.
Have there been any noteworthy user reactions or feedback to the IQL program within your app?
If a user’s Driver Score meets the set criteria for our insurance providers, and they are offered an offer, it is an incredibly compelling rate: 40% savings, which can translate to hundreds off their current rate.
The potential savings that we can give our customers who are looking for ways to improve their financial situation is a huge benefit. There’s a really strong value proposition with Driver Score.
“The potential savings that we can give our customers who are looking for ways to improve their financial situation is a huge benefit. There’s a really strong value proposition with Driver Score.”
Looking ahead, how do you foresee the continued impact of the IQL program on your app's performance and user base?
We want to make Driver Score a daily destination, turning our monthly active users into daily active users. We believe the program can do that for us – it’s a compelling reason for our user base to come back not just once, but multiple times a day. And if we become that daily destination with Driver Score, that is a high tide that lifts all boats across all our products and services.
“If we become a daily destination for users with Driver Score, that is a high tide that lifts all boats across all our products and services.”
We have the potential to get around 40 percent of our users to activate the Driver Score experience on the MoneyLion app. And maybe even 40 percent isn’t large enough – 90%+ of Americans drive, and our user base is showing no different. Getting more users to activate this experience would come with certain benefits and value props that would entice them to keep returning to the app.
To learn more about Zendrive's IQL program, click here or contact us directly below.
