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Discover Financial Services' new "Brighter" marketing campaign encourages consumers to "spend smarter" and carry less debt by using its Paydown Planner tool and Motiva card. "Maybe then we could have a better quality of life and be in a better financial position while we are living it," the narrator says in one of the campaign's television commercials. Discover cardholders can log onto the issuer's Web site and use the Paydown Planner to calculate how much they need to pay each month to clear their balance by a certain date. The figures given by the Paydown Planner are based on the terms and conditions unique to the cardholder's individual account. It even considers whether interest rates vary on the balance for different types of purchases or balance transfers. Also tied to the "Brighter" campaign is Discover's Motiva card, which pays cardholders a month's worth of interest for every six consecutive payments made on time. The bonus comes in addition to the other cash-back rewards the cardholder receives for using the card. Discover did not develop the Paydown Planner and Motiva card in response to the current state of the economy but instead to help cardholders become better financial planners, says Larissa Drake, Discover vice president of brand communications. "It's been our mission all along to help consumers spend smarter," she adds.
