Nate Smith × USAA

Country music star Nate Smith is partnering with USAA to drive awareness of the organization’s benefits and services with people who qualify for membership.

USAA's Core Values

USAA was founded on the core values of service, loyalty, honesty, and integrity and has a mission of empowering members to achieve financial security. Over the decades, USAA has expanded its offerings for members–and has extended eligibility requirements so that benefits and services are available to an even larger group of US military members, their spouses, and children of USAA members. 

From USAA: USAA was founded in 1922 when 25 Army officers decided to insure each other's vehicles. Over time, their tiny organization has grown to serve millions in the military community.

USAA wants to make sure that everyone who qualifies for membership knows about the benefits available to them. Despite broadening eligibility requirements, there are a lot of people who are unaware that they qualify for membership. In the past, USAA has primarily utilized sports sponsorships and partnerships to reach their target audience and the organization was looking for a new avenue to reach a broader target audience of US service members and their families. 

Nate Smith's Military Connection

USAA challenged MAX with driving awareness with music fans who might not know that they qualify for USAA memberships. Our artist team identified Nate Smith as the ideal artist partner for this campaign based on audience profile, genuine support for military members, and his uniquely relevant story. Not only does Nate Smith’s audience over-index for several key target audience attributes, he also comes from a military family–and was surprised to learn that he himself qualified for USAA membership.

Nate Smith’s father served in the United States Air Force and Nate grew up on Air Force bases across the country (and around the world), giving him a unique connection to the US military and to this campaign. Working closely with the team at USAA, we created a series of interview-style videos featuring Nate telling personal stories about how his father’s military service shaped the person he is today and taught him the discipline he needs to be successful in his music career.

A Relevant Artist + Relatable Content

This campaign is designed to drive awareness for USAA through relatable storytelling content optimized to reach and engage the target audience. We are thrilled for the launch of this campaign and especially for the opportunity to work with USAA and Nate Smith to share such an important message. 

Get to Know Nate Smith

Nate Smith is an American country music singer from Paradise, California. After the tragic Camp Fire in 2018, which resulted in Nate losing all of his belongings, he turned to music as an outlet. Since his debut single, “Wildfire,” in 2019, he’s taken the industry by storm with a unique mix of gritty backwoods soul, rock n’ roll swagger, and velvet-thunder vocals. Over a few years, he’s had several songs hit the top charts, including “Whiskey on You,” “Wreckage,” and “World on Fire,” and his self-titled album Nate Smith hit number six on the US Country charts since its release in 2023.

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