How brand strategy took our unknown banking and payments platform to a new level

By Heather Clifton, CMO, i2c Inc

When I started at banking and payments platform i2c just over a year ago, it was pretty clear there was a major brand awareness problem.

After more than a decade immersed in the payments world at Visa, I was approached by an ex-boss of mine, Jim McCarthy (a twenty year veteran in payments), who was now president of i2c. He’d taken up the position six months earlier. But prior to that, neither he nor I had ever even heard of i2c. And at that point, it was 20 years old.

I found it fascinating that a business could exist for so long without any significant sales or marketing efforts. It had a logo, and it had a website, but the existing communications didn’t answer some pretty basic questions, like, what is it, and what does it do?

There’s no question that it’s a brilliant platform, and that it provides the components that enable companies to innovate and drive business growth. But in terms of creating awareness and setting out our stall, we were pretty much starting from scratch.

One of the challenges for B2B operations like ours is that they stand behind their clients and are pretty invisible. But what is exciting about what we do is we turn our clients’ visions into reality. If you’re investing your own dollars into an idea, you need to be able to execute it quickly, even if it has never been done before. So many legacy operators just don’t have that capability, or they make you sacrifice flexibility for reliability. Our system is very configurable – we have lots of building blocks already in place, we can create new ones, and it’s wholly dependable.

A new solution for visionaries

Our new brand strategy centres around a key idea: i2c is the choice of product visionaries. That does a few things. It taps into the thinking that i2c can accommodate any concept without compromising flexibility or reliability. And it says to our customers, ‘We think you’re a visionary, and we want to help bring your ideas to life.’ It positions us as the banking and payments platform that turns dreams into reality in a fast-paced, complex sector.

While we had developed some agency positioning and messaging internally, specifically around there being no compromises, no trade-offs, etc, we knew it wasn’t elevated enough. It was at that point that we contacted Juan Sanchez, who leads the Americas operations for fst, a UK-based brand agency with offices in London, Miami and Singapore. It was Juan that spearheaded the messaging: ‘Behind every innovation, there’s a visionary.’ And that formed the foundation for the whole strategy and creative solution.

The fst creative team developed a unique and totally ownable illustrative and animation style. I kept hearing the words ‘fresh’, ‘charming’ and ‘delightful’ being bandied about the boardroom. When you work in the B2B financial services world, they’re not words that you hear that often. We loved it. It’s a super effective system because it’s eminently flexible and we can use it to tell lots of different stories. And it’s a visual tool that moves away from everything else in the sector – strictly no stock photography, or pure copy ads.

i2c is a highly configurable service tool, and our USP is that we enable our clients to get their products to market as quickly, seamlessly and efficiently as possible. The simplicity of the brand strategy and illustrative style tallies with that concept perfectly.

Weak brand? You’ll get pipped at the post

Why is it so important for B2B financial service operators to get their brand right? Because without a strong brand you’re going to get scooped by someone who does a better job of communicating to the consumer. It’s as simple as that. Think of Apple, a company with a belief system and manifesto in place that engenders total loyalty and trust. Your product might be better, but that’s not enough.

The financial services world is constantly changing at lightning speed. People need to innovate, evolve and remain endlessly agile. Our new brand strategy and creative solution places us at the heart of that arena. People choose us because they need an enabler – and now, thanks to the new brand approach, they know just how straightforward and effective the whole process is.