Ally Financial brings Monopoly to life to improve financial literacy

Ally Financial is once again promoting financial literacy among Americans and this time it includes an augmented reality experience and a life-sized Monopoly game.

Ally + Monopoly, as the game is called, brings the iconic board game to life in six cities with an augmented reality experience and a chance to win up to $50,000 in cash, along with a Jeep Wrangler.

A September study revealed 41% of Americans don’t feel confident in their knowledge of money concepts, Ally found. “We get it – thinking about money and how best to manage it can be daunting, but gamification is proven to help,” said Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Brimmer.

In fact, the research showed 81% of Americans think money-related board games are helpful in teaching basic money concepts. Of those surveyed, 71% said playing money-related games as a child helped make them more comfortable with money concepts.

Available in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, New York, and Seattle, players use their smartphones to track down tokens and property spaces to create an augmented reality scavenger hunt. A new Jeep Wrangler, GO square prizes of $200 and grand prizes of $50,000 are among the winning prizes.

Additionally, Ally + Monopoly will include a Community Chest square where players can raise money for their local Junior Achievement chapter – a support program whose mission revolves around providing American youth with financial literacy, entrepreneurship and areas of work readiness. Ally will make a donation of $50,000 to Junior Achievement in the city that has the most players land on the virtual Community Chest. Ally will also donate $15,000 to Junior Achievement in the five other cities for a total of $125,000 in national donations.

Previously, Ally Financial launched a social media game to promote financial literacy among couples. The campaign, called Confessiongrams, was truth-or-dare style game where participants choose to either answer a question about their finances or post a video completing an embarrassing dare.