ROCKETBANK communication

Rocketbank is a Russian mobile bank that first existed from 2013 to 2020. The bank was known for informal communication, the absence of physical offices, and a positioning aimed at young users. After four and a half years, in May 2025, the bank announced its relaunch. The new version operates under the license of Sovcombank but uses a completely new technology stack and a different team.

The launch is led by Anton Zakharov and Robert Sabiryanov, co‑founders of Blank Bank and former top managers of Modulbank. According to Zakharov, the relaunch represents «a big challenge and responsibility toward the former team and clients» with the goal of making Rocket 2.0 evoke strong emotions similar to the original. Rocketbank is positioned as a lifestyle brand rather than a traditional financial institution. The new positioning does not refer to interest rates or financial products. An independent strategic analysis by Yuri Nechaev, communication strategist at Cube, noted that, while other banks discuss rates and percentages, Rocketbank addresses a topic that financial institutions usually avoid: pleasure. The communication suggests that money is not the final goal but a context, a resource for experiences that define a person‘s identity. The main product is a paid subscription called Rocket Pass, priced at 300 rubles per month. The subscription provides access to curated selections of restaurants, local brands, events and private parties. Nechaev described the service as «a city having its own taste editor».

The brand faces a strategic conflict concerning its target audience. One part of the campaign openly addresses former clients of the old Rocketbank, who are mainly Millennials aged thirty to forty and older. Outdoor posters ask whether anyone has seen these former clients. Alexandra Fedorova, writing on TenChat, noted that Millennials have largely moved to other banks and would prefer a better mortgage rate rather than a joke; their needs have changed toward security and rational utility. Generation Z, in contrast, did not experience the old Rocketbank and is difficult to attract with a 300‑ruble card, even through humor and authenticity. This gap in targeting represents the main vulnerability of the campaign.

The brand uses a hybrid strategy that combines offline and online channels. Offline communication includes outdoor advertising in Moscow and Saint Petersburg: billboards, posters at bus stops, digital screens, and posters with tear-off sheets.

The advertising materials continue the brand‘s signature style with a conversational tone, without an emphasis on banking products. The Rocket’s advertising looks like «fragments of friends’ weekends or spontaneous smiles frozen in a Polaroid», rather than standard advertising brochures.

Online channels include a Telegram channel called «Rocketbank speaks!», VK, TikTok, Instagram* and YouTube. Within a few months after the relaunch, more than one thousand short videos on TikTok used the hashtag #РОКЕТБАНК. The brand also works with influencers and encourages user‑generated content.

*Meta Platforms Inc. (including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) has been designated as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation since 2022.

The PR strategy was called the «wave of memories». The campaign was managed by the agency Piarhub. The strategy started with a question: «Has anyone seen our ex-clients?» This question generated a wave of memes and spontaneous publications. According to Piarhub, people wrote about the old Rocketbank with warm emotions and sincere nostalgia, without paid marking or pricing, simply out of sympathy.

The nostalgic wave was picked up by major and minor Telegram channels. The campaign achieved more than one hundred media mentions and nearly 1.5 million social media views, mostly through organic distribution. Repeated exposure across all platforms created a habituation effect: each encounter with the brand builds familiarity and reduces resistance to the new visual identity.

The core idea of UGT is that the audience is active. People do not ask what media does with people, but rather what people do with media. Users select media to satisfy their own psychological or social needs. The media compete with other resources for need satisfaction. Rocketbank does not sell financial products but the gratification of needs: hedonism, belonging to an exclusive group, and identity expression through consumption. The bank competes not with other banks but with entertainment, lifestyle media and community platforms.

Dialogic Theory requires five features: mutuality, propinquity, empathy, risk and commitment. Organizations should be willing to interact with the public in honest and ethical ways, and the relationship should be characterized by supportiveness and collaborative decision‑making. Rocketbank breaks the hierarchical bank‑client template. Customer support communicates without scripts or automated responses. The brand positions itself as a partner rather than an authority, inviting conversation instead of broadcasting commands.

Point 1: nostalgia as an attention trigger (UGT — information acquisition)

The «wave of memories» campaign illustrates the UGT concept of information acquisition, which refers to the extent of a problem‑solver’s directness in gaining information. Former clients actively sought information about the relaunch. They were driven by the need to resolve the cognitive dissonance caused by the loss of a bank they had liked. According to the PR agency, nostalgia served as a method to reach former clients and transfer them into a new reality: familiar empathy combined with the modern philosophy of money as a pass to life. This resulted in active information seeking, not passive consumption.

Point 2: Hedonism as a new category frame (UGT — personal identity)

Banking communications have traditionally satisfied surveillance needs, such as monitoring one‘s finances. Rocketbank instead targets personal identity needs. The consumer uses the card not primarily to track money but to express a personal style. The visual language (warm film‑like frames, soft gradients) and the tone create an affective rather than utilitarian gratification. This directly applies the UGT distinction between pleasure‑oriented and task‑oriented consumption.

Point 3: The split between Generation Z and Millennials (UGT — different needs, different media)

UGT states that different groups of people have different intentions for using different media. This explains the campaign‘s vulnerability. Millennials need security, stability and rational utility. For them, the message of continuous pleasure is irrelevant. They perceive the relationship as producing more drawbacks than benefits, a negative outcome value, because they value predictability over hedonism.

Point 4: Usability problems on the landing page (Dialogic Theory — violation of intuitiveness)

Dialogic Theory requires that sites be easy to use. Within three clicks, a person must find what they are looking for.

A critical review by Dmitry Satarov on TenChat found the opposite. The first screen was described as a riddle, with half of the screen occupied by memes and folders with strange names. The purpose was unclear. There was no clear call to action. Users reported standing confused for several minutes, trying to understand what the site expected from them. Memes appeared as random pictures without connection to services. Values such as aestheticity and boldness were described as beautiful but meaningless.

This violates the dialogic loop: the website does not allow users to query the organization effectively. Instead of facilitating dialogue, the interface creates confusion and distrust. Satarov concluded that trust is built on stability, transparency, a clear interface and real client reviews, not on funny pictures and a startup mood.

Point 5: PR performance metrics and their limits.

According to Piarhub‘s data, the campaign achieved 101 media mentions and nearly 1.5 million social media views. From an awareness perspective, the campaign succeeded. However, UGT reminds that usage and activity alone do not equal gratification. The relevant question is not whether people saw the campaign, but whether their needs were satisfied. For former clients, who are Millennials, the answer is likely negative: the message provided no useful information.

They saw the advertisements but did not adopt the product. A commentary on Sostav.ru noted this paradox: while the marketing world discusses the return of Rocketbank and how they cleverly played on nostalgia and caught former clients, a potential new client observed that the campaign passed him by entirely, raising the question of whether focusing only on the past is sufficient for sustainable growth in a highly competitive market. The campaign generated awareness but not necessarily conversion. This is the hidden cost of using a single emotional message for different audience segments.

According to the theory of use and reward, an active audience chooses media to meet specific needs. In the case of Rocketbank, the campaign effectively serves Generation Z by meeting their needs to express identity and social affiliation, but does not meet the needs of millennials who require security and rational usefulness. The same theory also points out that different audience segments require different media usage patterns; targeting both segments with the same message creates cognitive dissonance rather than engagement.

From the point of view of the theory of dialogue, the principle of intuitiveness is necessary for successful dialogue. The confusion seen on the landing page disrupts the dialogue cycle and therefore undermines user trust. On the other hand, the principle of risk and sincerity, when applied correctly, helps build relationships. The nostalgic Wave of Memories campaign was authentic and organic, and it managed to attract public attention. However, it should be noted that awareness does not mean satisfaction: 1.5 million social media views do not necessarily indicate satisfied customers or successful conversions.

Recommendations. First, clearly divide the messaging into two directions. One direction should be rational and transparent for former clients, with clear conditions and stability. The other direction should continue the hedonistic aesthetics of Generation Z. The theory of use and satisfaction requires such segmentation.

Secondly, change the landing page by adding a clear call to action, a visible button, and a clear three-click value proposition, as required by dialog theory. It is worth noting that after the release of the card, the site was changed and now the target action for ordering the card is on the home page.

Third, balance exclusivity with accessibility. The current restriction on ordering cards exclusively in Moscow and St. Petersburg enhances the sense of belonging among insiders, but alienates potential users in other regions.

Fourth, keep an eye not only on engagement, but also on the rejection of advertising. If former customers see ads but don’t click through, their needs aren’t being met. In this case, the emotional success of the campaign may mask a commercial failure.