Backbase
Making a fintech brand customer-centered
Client
Backbase is an Amsterdam based fintech unicorn, empowering banks and financial institutions across the globe in their digital transformation with their Software as a Service (SaaS) banking platform. Visit site: backbase.com
Challenge
Since being founded in 2003 Backbase has seen stellar tech development and massive growth of sales and operations towards a multi-billion valuation and industry leading position. Meanwhile, the Backbase brand and storytelling had received little attention. Our challenge was to re-invent and activate the Backbase brand and lift it to the competitive level of their award-winning digital products.
Work
We started by reformulating Backbase’s purpose - it’s intended impact on the world beyond making profit. Behind every bank that uses Backbase as their software platform, there are millions of end-users using its platform every day to control their finances. We chose to visualise this impact by revealing the inner workings of a few of those people. We asked real humans on the street (not actors): “What do you think about, when you think of money?” and captured their wide range of thoughts and emotions, from stress and fears to hopes and dreams.
At the annual global conference ‘Backbase Connect’ CEO and Founder Jouk Pleiter, revealed the resulting video as the company’s ‘North Star’ - it’s long-term guiding principle - showing that Backbase places the real human needs of its end-users at the heart of their company. To emphasise this message, all event- and company communications (banners, magazines and websites) were redesigned to show real humans and landing the brand promise “Become the bank that people love”. To ensure maximum impact and consistency we also created the full video package for the event and directed the event technicians (lighting, sound and special effects).
Impact
Towards the 1.500 event attendees (C-level executives of banks and financial institutions) - Backbase’s clients and prospective clients from around the world - the new brand promise and presentation hit the core of what their work should always have been about, but frankly had been lost out of sight. A lost truth in plain sight. This refreshing message positioned Backbase as customer centered brand and placed them in an industry leading position. Backbase’s CEO and his teams received overwhelming praise from clients, prospects, team members and press and closed a record amount of deal volume following the event. The new positioning and revenue growth bumped the company’s valuation to unicorn status at 2.5B, which they successfully consolidated in their consecutive funding round.
Testimonials
“Elwin and his team did a great job helping us to move our internal and external communications / story telling to the next level. Keywords: Smart, Empathy and Passioned about the work they deliver.”
- Jouk Pleiter, Backbase CEO & Founder
“Elwin is a one-of-a-kind brand and overall marketing strategist whom I can highly recommend after having been a client multiple times. He will simply not stop until he gets to the essence of what you're trying to achieve and the purpose it serves. In his own unique way - he will challenge you to be more crisp than ever before - and take the leap forward to bring it to life in an "out there" and differentiating approach. Want to stand out and have fun while building together? Seek no further. He's your guy!”
- Tim Rutten, Backbase CMO
Strategy & Project Lead: Elwin Stevelink
Film Team: Mark Magellan, Saulo Jamariqueli, Luca Sammuri