5 Questions With Eva Wong About Borrowell’s New TV Spot: ‘Home Birth’

If you’ve ever felt anxious when it comes to your finances, more specifically your credit score, Borrowell – Canada’s leading credit monitoring company – has a new commercial just for you.

The commercial features a young couple in the midst of giving birth to their first child in a planned home birth. While the soon-to-be-mother and the midwife focus on the labour, the soon-to-be-father wonders (out loud) whether they can actually afford the cost of raising a child in Canada. He narrowly escapes the ire of his wife when the midwife suggests he simply check his credit score for free at Borrowell.com.

The commercial has received some significant recognition and has generated a lot of interest. I sat down with Eva Wong, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Borrowell to find out the “why” of the commercial.

RS: Can you tell us a bit more about Borrowell’s new commercial?

Eva Wong: The premise of the commercial is that ‘anytime is a good time’ to check your credit score. We’re targeting the majority of Canadians who are financially curious and want to be good with their money but may find the idea of financial improvement daunting.

We think everyone in Canada should know their credit score. It really is something you can do anytime, so we wanted to have some fun with that idea.

RS: Why did Borrowell feature a home birth in the commercial?

Eva Wong: From what we’ve learned from our customer research, many people experience financial stress and anxiety – and especially new parents, around the growth of their family.

The ad is intentionally silly and is not meant to be viewed as something that would actually happen. We’re being facetious in order to create an ad that might entertain people with its silliness, while still communicating the idea that if you’re growing a family and experiencing a change in life stage, it could be a good time to check your credit score.

RS: Can you personally relate to the content of the commercial?

Eva Wong: I have two kids and had midwife-assisted births, so I’ve experienced something similar. Thousands of women give birth every day. Given that it’s something that a large segment of the population can relate to, it should be normalized.  

The anxiety that the partner can feel, heightened emotions all around and the overall stress of the situation is something I’ve also experienced. While the commercial isn’t something that would actually happen, I think the anxiety portrayed is very real.

RS: Some people have found the commercial a little shocking. What’s your opinion?

Eva Wong: The commercial was meant to be funny and entertaining – so I’m a bit surprised that people describe it as shocking! Maybe it’s that in the mainstream media, there’s an under-representation of women’s life experiences. We don’t often see women giving birth in commercials! As a woman who has given birth, I think it’s great to see more women’s experiences being portrayed in a mainstream television commercial.

I also want to say that Borrowell has a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. So, for all of us, it was important to have strong female characters and ethnic diversity in the commercial. In the end, we wanted to create a memorable commercial that was funny. We certainly didn’t mean to offend anybody.

RS: Why should Canadians check their credit score?

Eva Wong: The first step to improving your credit score is knowing it. We recently conducted a study and found a correlation between the frequency of credit monitoring – how often a person checks their score – and credit score improvement over time.

More specifically, we found that customers who consistently logged in when they got their score refresh saw an average score increase of 20 points, relative to customers that didn’t log in consistently. We also found that engaged members using Borrowell for 18-20 months with scores below 600 experienced an average increase of 43 points. 

It’s exciting news because Borrowell’s mission is to help Canadians make great decisions about credit.

Eva Wong is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Borrowell. Borrowell helps Canadians make great decisions about credit. With its free credit score and report monitoring, personal loans, and product recommendations, Borrowell empowers Canadians to improve their financial well-being and be the hero of their credit! Get your credit score and credit report in under 3 minutes.