How Public.com Turned Fortune Cookies Into Free Stock and a Whole Lot of Buzz

Public.com is an investing platform built for people who want their portfolio to feel less like a Bloomberg terminal and more like something they can actually understand. The company makes stocks, ETFs, crypto, and bonds accessible to everyday investors, with a mission of helping more people build long-term financial futures.

Investment platforms have a credibility problem disguised as a marketing problem. People know they should be investing, but the category feels jargon-heavy, intimidating, and easy to put off until "later." Public needed to reach consumers in a moment when they were already thinking about the future, without sounding like another finance app barking at them about compounding interest. The trick was making the message feel light, useful, and worth holding onto.

OpenFortune partnered with Public to wrap the future inside something people were already cracking open. Front slips carried inspirational fortunes built around money goals and building toward what's next. Back slips delivered the real hook: up to $300 in free stock to jumpstart a portfolio, paired with a QR code that took diners straight to the sign-up. The format met people in a relaxed, post-meal moment, exactly when "thinking ahead" feels less like a chore and more like a possibility.

61% unaided brand recall meant most diners walked away remembering Public by name, no prompting required. This is 3x-10x the normal unaided recall from traditional media channels (OOH, TV, Radio/Podcast, Direct Mail, Digital, Social, etc).

17% kept their fortune slip, an unusually sticky number for any out-of-home format and a sign the offer was strong enough to pocket. The campaign also generated organic social posts from diners showing off their slips, including one user captioning theirs "Now that's how you get a sign up!!" Another called it "one of my new year resolutions coming to fruition through the most unexpected way, a fortune cookie." When your ad becomes someone's New Year's resolution moment, you've done something right.

If you want to learn more about how we can do the same for your brand, let's chat.