Tina Fey congratulates millennials for grown-up firsts in AmEx’s latest campaign

“We know that social platforms are a place where everyone goes to share important life moments,” said Jeannie Chu, vp of global social media and content strategy at American Express. “It’s the perfect place for us to acknowledge and celebrate those moments and help make our brand more relatable to them as they go through these experiences.”

Launching today, the campaign consists of 12 videos starring Fey, each of which starts off as a greeting card before coming to life as a congratulatory video. The videos open with an image of Fey holding a pose with a caption, after which she springs into action to deliver a funny congratulatory message. They end with a sequence that serves up a benefit of the company’s Blue Cash Everyday credit card.

The “Dinner Party” video, for example, starts off with a still of Fey with the copy “Congrats on your first dinner party.” The video then kicks off with her trying to explain the secret to making perfect roast chicken: She pulls the bird out of the oven and pokes at it with a concerned look on her face. It is hard, uncooked and still frozen. An epic fail. The struggle, as they say, is real.

The goal, said Chu, was to be a supportive friend, both believable and credible. “We’re not saying Tina or the brand is going through the same things, we’re saying that we’re steadfast and we’re here for you, no matter what life throws at you.”

Millennials have been a growing focus for AmEx over the past few years. The campaign is an extension of its “Epic Everyday” campaign from earlier this summer, in which the company partnered with BuzzFeed for a new recipe and do-it-yourself video series on its Tasty and Nifty channels.

The brand has also been putting an increasing emphasis on social and digital, more than doubling its investment on social, added Chu. It has plans to introduce a Facebook Messenger bot later this year, which would send members real-time notifications about their purchases as well as information about their card benefits and services associated with those purchases.

“The financial services brands are all worried about their core businesses and are trying to make sure they stay relevant,” Sucharita Mulpuru, chief retail strategist at ShopTalk, told Digiday earlier.

The brand hopes its self-deprecating humor in the videos encourages millennials to share them more broadly with their peers on social. It will be tracking both engagement and attitudinal metrics about brand favorability.

“The maturity of paid media on these platforms has consistently pushed a greater investment on them from our side,” she said.