The Social Media Reset of Western Union by Love Street & Company

We were tapped to rebrand Western Union from top to bottom, and it was a labor of love. In our three-year partnership, we touched nearly every channel of the brand—from digital product to retail and social media—and brand voice naturally became part of that. We believe this body of work was the most memorable and game-changing for the audience they serve.

The work stayed true to their audience—immigrants who send remittances—and to current mediums like short-form video, Instagram, and TikTok. Winning something makes all the hard work, difficult conversations, and fun memories so worth it.

This work succeeded because we embedded ourselves with our clients—becoming an extension of both their team and their customer insights group. Everything starts and ends with the customer, so as part of our broader brand and social strategy, we searched for the connective tissue that could unite immigrants from all continents and walks of life through a shared online experience.

By hiring global cultural consultants and creatives with immigrant backgrounds, we brought a fresh voice to an audience often overlooked by major brands—especially in financial services. And again, kudos to our clients for letting us play in the social media sandbox, experimenting with what works, what doesn’t, and iterating from there.

We changed the narrative for an audience that is often pandered to, misrepresented, or—at worst—demonized. By focusing on financial education and entertainment, we aimed to add real value to their channels rather than simply pushing out promotional content, as many brands do.

Humor played a big role in lightening the mood and creating connection, and our cultural consultants helped shape content with IYKYK nods to immigrant life.

When we started, Western Union’s audience consisted mostly of bots, trolls, or disgruntled one-time users. Sentiment was extremely low, with engagement being negative.

To turn this around, we had to find new audiences—and to do that, we implemented a radically different, distributed content model, alongside securing approval for boosted budgets that proved highly effective in attracting new audiences and driving positive engagement.

We love working with underdogs and challenger brands, and we hope this work inspires other legacy brands—or those hesitant about brand building and taking risks—to experiment more, take social a little less seriously, and trust creative teams to do what they do best.

General happiness, nothing too wild. There was already a sense of pride and accomplishment—this was just the cherry on top.

-Embrace experimentation: Whether that’s how you work (cultural advisers, in-house teams), emerging technology, or testing and learning throughout the process.

-Take a beat to do insights: Whether that’s deep research or hitting up friends that represent your audience. Talk to real people, understand what motivates them, entertains them, excites them.

-Don’t be too scared: Take a few risks and try new things (constantly). Especially on the client side – give creative teams some freedom to experiment.

Technology and AI are here but they are merely tools to help us reach greatness, not the greatness itself. We’ll always be an insights-driven, design-focused agency that believes in brand and storytelling. Our positioning won’t change even if our toolkit does.

It never hurts to try. Doing the intake work might help you see your work in a different light. Even if you don’t win, having a case study, press kit, or similar materials with some perspective on the work itself is valuable regardless.

We’re here to collaborate! In these ever-changing times, we like to think of ourselves as a broader creative collective, not just doing client service work but also incubating our own brands, experiences, and services.

The team — Fernanda Soria, Amine el Filali, Kelsey Wilkins, Raffi Torres, and Cristina Tartaro — are the real MVPs.

We made entertaining financial content in a social-first way for a population that deserves better treatment in this country.

Love Street is open for new clients, big and small, while we work on some passion projects, take care of our kids and our health, and build our dream home in Mexico.