Creating a group fund has become second nature for millions of people in France, whether it’s to celebrate a birthday, organize a farewell gift, or support someone in need.
But this need can’t be artificially created. For Leetchi, the challenge is therefore to build brand preference ahead of time, so that it becomes the first choice when the need arises, while also addressing key challenges around trust, security, and performance.
In this new episode of Ad Talks, Amandine Plas, Marketing Director at Leetchi, explains how the brand brings together branding, acquisition, data, and social impact.
To start, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your career so far?
I’m Amandine Plas, Marketing Director at Leetchi.
I started my career more than fifteen years ago at the IDEAS Institute, working with nonprofit organizations and foundations. I then moved into the startup world before spending nearly eight years in the mobility sector, notably at Chauffeur Privé, which later became Kapten and then FREE NOW, and at Cityscoot.
Joining Leetchi two and a half years ago felt like a natural next step. It brought me back to the social impact focus of my early career and to a service that makes a tangible difference.
What makes marketing at Leetchi different?
The main difference is that we cannot create the need. If someone has no reason to start a money pot, a promotion will not manufacture that need.
Our challenge is therefore to stay top of mind so that, when the need arises, Leetchi is the first brand people think of. That means building the brand over time, even when the conversion does not happen immediately.
How do you build that brand preference?
We combine several channels, both online and offline:
- campaigns on YouTube and Meta
- out-of-home advertising in metro and train stations
- partnerships with events such as Solidays
- media relations supported by trends observed on the platform
The choice depends on the target audience. YouTube, TikTok and festival partnerships can help us reach younger audiences, while media relations speak to other profiles. The format must also fit the channel: you do not communicate in the same way on TikTok as you would in a business publication.
This mix has helped us gain ten points in brand awareness in one year. Today, Leetchi has close to 50% unaided brand awareness in France.
How do you adapt your strategy for celebratory and charitable money pots?
The audiences and timing are different. Celebratory money pots revolve around fairly predictable occasions, such as birthdays, weddings, new babies and farewell gifts.
Charitable giving also has its key moments, such as Pink October and Giving Tuesday, but it is more closely driven by current events.
How do you balance planning ahead with reacting to current events?
Some topics can be anticipated, such as animal abandonment during the summer or student hardship at the start of the academic year. Other events require an immediate response.
Our tools allow us to identify money pots linked to current events and track both their number and the amounts raised. Our creative team can then quickly produce the content needed to increase their visibility.
How is giving in France changing?
We analyze data from the platform and work with Odoxa each year on a barometer tracking giving habits.
Some people in France prefer contributing to a charitable money pot rather than donating directly to a nonprofit because the impact feels more tangible. After several years of decline, the amounts raised have returned to levels comparable to those seen before Covid.
Despite inflation, generosity remains strong: people may give smaller amounts but spread their donations across more causes.
How do you turn trust into a marketing asset?
LSecurity is essential, even if it is not always the first thing someone thinks about when starting a money pot.
Leetchi handles financial flows and must ensure that the money raised is used for its stated purpose. Several safeguards are in place:
- an in-house team dedicated to fraud prevention
- algorithms designed to detect suspicious activity
- a community reporting system
- a customer support team based in Paris
When a money pot quickly goes viral, it may be temporarily suspended for a few hours while the necessary checks are carried out.
Security, transparency and customer support are therefore all part of our communication. The challenge is to reassure users without making the brand feel too institutional. Leetchi remains an emotional brand, but that sense of closeness must be supported by a solid framework.
Does Leetchi’s growth rely more on branding or performance marketing?
It relies on a balance between the two.
The bottom of the funnel captures existing intent. When someone searches for “birthday money pot” on Google, the need is already there: our goal is to convert that demand. Competition is strong, including competitors bidding on our brand name, which means we also have to defend our position in the search results.
The upper funnel lays the groundwork for that conversion much earlier. It raises awareness of Leetchi’s different use cases and educates people about charitable fundraising. Someone might see an ad in the metro, be invited to contribute to a money pot a few weeks later, and then search for a solution themselves several months down the line. All these touchpoints contribute to the final conversion, even if Google receives the last-click credit.
How do you turn contributors into future money pot creators?
Every creator shares their money pot with several people who then discover Leetchi as contributors. The challenge is to encourage them to return as creators.
It all starts with a simple, fast, transparent and reassuring experience. When someone receives a link, they did not choose the platform, so that first interaction needs to build trust.
Our CRM strategy then takes over by gathering feedback, introducing contributors to other use cases and sharing relevant content. Some users become highly active. In large companies, for example, the same person may create every farewell money pot. These are particularly valuable users to retain.
How do you measure the performance of a full-funnel strategy?
LWhen I joined, measurement relied heavily on Google and last-click attribution. As a result, Google received most of the credit, even when a YouTube, Meta or out-of-home campaign had influenced the user earlier in the journey.
We have since introduced an attribution tool to better understand the full customer journey. The KPIs then vary depending on the objective:
- performance: customer acquisition cost and conversions
- brand building: reach, frequency and changes in brand awareness
- major campaigns: brand lift studies conducted before and after the campaign
A brand awareness campaign measured only through immediate conversions will inevitably appear unprofitable.
Data remains central, but it does not replace intuition or creativity. If I followed last-click data alone, I could put the entire budget into Google. That might work for a few months, but performance would eventually decline because we had stopped investing in the brand. Data explains what happened yesterday; it does not always tell us what to create tomorrow.
How is artificial intelligence changing your strategy?
The first challenge is GEO and our visibility within AI tools. The rules differ from SEO: LLMs notably favor question-and-answer formats, clear comparisons, transparent pricing and visible user reviews.
Traffic from these tools is still low, but it is growing by more than 100% each month. We therefore need to adapt our content now.
Internally, AI can also automate reporting, identify trends and speed up content production. It saves us time, but human review remains essential.
What are Leetchi’s next priorities?
We want to keep improving the experience for both creators and contributors while strengthening our role as a facilitator.
Together with iRaiser, Leetchi is developing its offering for nonprofits and foundations. It enables individuals to launch fundraisers on behalf of an organization and become ambassadors for a cause.
Already common in English-speaking markets, this type of peer-to-peer fundraising is gaining ground in France through charity runs, as well as birthdays, weddings and funerals. Our role is to make these initiatives as simple as possible, especially during difficult moments.
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