Student debt is a major financial challenge, with U.S. borrowers owing over $1.8 trillion in total. This ongoing debt burden affects millions of individuals. Traditional financial institutions are looking for ways to solve this issue. Meanwhile, fintech innovations are providing solutions. These new technologies are helping to address the problem.
Michelle Tran is the head of commercial at Summer and founder of NYC Fintech Women. She joins the Tearsheet podcast to discuss how fintech is streamlining student loan repayment. The conversation focuses on the improvements fintech brings to the process, highlighting how fintech is powering a new generation of financial wellness programs.
“For many borrowers, navigating student loan repayment is like filing taxes on their own,” Tran explains. “The process is complicated. And a simple mistake can lead to missed opportunities for debt relief.”
Tran highlights how fintech platforms like Summer act as a “TurboTax for student loans,” helping borrowers complete complex federal student loan relief applications accurately. There is a growing demand for employer-sponsored loan repayment benefits. Fintech solutions are helping connect employees with the right programs. These solutions play an essential role in meeting that demand.
Employers and Student Loan Benefits: A Growing Trend
Employers are increasingly incorporating student loan repayment programs into their benefits packages. According to Tran, over 50% of employees are asking for loan assistance. Yet, less than 10% of employers currently offer such benefits. “The trend is shifting,” Tran notes. “We’re seeing companies of all sizes. Whether a private practice with 20 employees or a large tech firm. They start offering student debt relief as a retention tool.” With fintech solutions, companies can integrate loan repayment into payroll systems. This makes it easier for employees to access benefits. Some employers now match student loan payments with contributions to retirement plans.
Role of Federal Student Loan Relief Programs
Federal programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) offer relief to borrowers. These programs are specifically for those working in public service sectors. They provide significant financial help to ease the burden. But, the application process remains complex, leading to high rejection rates. “Over 92% of people who apply for PSLF on their own make errors,” Tran states. “That’s where fintech comes in—we automate the process and ensure accuracy.” Fintech platforms streamline federal student loan relief applications. They help borrowers maximize their eligibility for help. This reduces their long-term financial burden.
Fintech’s Approach to Debt Management
Beyond student loans, fintech companies are addressing broader debt management challenges. Credit card debt, for example, often accumulates due to promotional offers. These later turn into high-interest balances. “Debt is easy to accrue but hard to manage,” Tran points out. “Fintech solutions can provide tools that help borrowers track payments. They can optimize repayment strategies, and avoid unnecessary interest.” Fintech companies offer financial wellness programs to users. These programs teach effective budgeting, credit management, and long-term planning. They help users improve their financial skills.
The Big Ideas
Employers Are Becoming Key Players in Student Debt Relief.“Graduates are considering job offers carefully. They are looking for companies that offer student loan repayment assistance. This benefit is becoming a key factor in their decision-making.”
Federal Loan Forgiveness Programs Are Underutilized. “Many borrowers don’t realize they qualify for loan forgiveness. Fintech is helping them access these benefits more efficiently.”
Technology Reduces Errors in Loan Applications.“Automation ensures borrowers submit accurate applications, increasing approval rates for federal programs.”
Fintech Solutions Are Expanding Beyond Student Loans. “Managing debt holistically creates a more secure financial future. The debt includes credit cards and retirement savings.”
Personal Finance Education is a Critical Component.“Helping borrowers understand their financial options leads to better decision-making and long-term stability.”
Plaid started out with a much narrower product suite and value proposition than they have today. The firm’s growth and maturity had made a brand update necessary – but rebrands are risky, difficult to execute, and easy to get wrong. But with a controlled scope, and a clear execution strategy rebrands can help brands reestablish their identities and drive even deeper brand recognition. With its recent rebrand this is what Plaid has aimed to achieve.
In today’s story we will discuss Plaid’s new look, the execution plan for its rebrand, and how it is measuring the success of its new efforts.
Setting goals
Plaid’s technological capabilities, products, and customers have changed dramatically over the years. With its recent rebrand, the firm wanted to signal how its products had grown from just being an account-linking solution to a “data network” according to Plaid’s Heather Mounsey, Head of Creative and Christope Tauziet, Head of Design, who also added further that the new brand needed to communicate Plaid’s work with all kinds businesses, not just fintechs.
Additionally, the brand also wanted to earn trust both up-market and with consumers. Its new identity needed to connect the firm with B2B and B2C customers.
The design remit
Design identities can go in many different directions. For example, Apple’s brand has always relied on minimalism, while brands like Klarna borrow heavily from maximalism by building bold, colorful, and edgy styles that lend a distinctive personality to the brand.
While the Plaid rebrand is extensive, it’s not an attempt to hollow out all of its assets and build anew. The firm’s rebranding efforts are more of a deep update of the brand’s visuals with a flourish of playfulness.
Here is how Plaid leverage paper money, a spectrum of colors and historical figures to build out its new look:
It’s all about color: Financial brands generally stay away from heavy use of color – most never go beyond blue. But the most recognizable brands in the financial industry today are standing out by using color more heavily in their brand identities.
Plaid’s new identity borrows heavily from the design techniques used in paper money and is reminiscent of a rainbow. Guilloche patterns — detailed engravings with curves and spirals – were first introduced to help reduce the printing of counterfeit money, and the new brand identity borrows from this history as well as the colors seen in the holographic strips in paper money.
Plaid’s new palette utilizes a broad range of colors with a soft but eye-catching green at its helm.
“Mint is our hero color in the palette. It symbolizes the blending of traditional finance (green) with technological opportunity (blue). The vibrancy of our palette signals innovation, while the spectrum itself is adaptable and ever-changing—just like our network and industry,” said Mounsey and Tauziet.
The colors in Plaid’s palette also have names like Piggy Bank for a vibrant pink and Gold Standard for a sun-like yellow. “Giving our colors names like Piggy Bank and Credit Lime are additional ways we sought to strengthen our ties to finance while showing our unique personality,” said Mounsey and Tauziet.
Drawing (upon) the greats: Perhaps the most engaging and new part of the rebrand are the illustrations of Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. Both personalities feature heavily in paper money, but Plaid has put a fun twist to these personalities, portraying Franklin holding a peace sign and a smart phone, and Lincoln smirking at a laptop while nursing an energy drink.
Made by hand and wood cut, these illustrations are an excellent example of how art can bridge two time periods and tell a story of movement and progress, while also anchoring consumers in values like legacy and trust. It’s these kinds of flourishes that really set fintech brands apart from traditional financial institutions.
What didn’t change: One important decision of the Plaid rebrand concerns the firm’s logo. While the firm made changes to most visual touchpoints, the logo stayed the same.
Plaid’s logo is an important part of its genesis story because the first algorithms its founders created roughly resembled a plaid pattern when drawn out on a whiteboard.
“With 1 in 2 banked Americans having used Plaid, the most recognizable aspect of our brand today is our logo. The trust and security that symbol represents was something we decided to preserve and take with us into the future. Now, we’re placing even more equity in the symbol itself, which still resonates deeply with loyal customers, users, and institutions across the Plaid Network,” said Mounsey and Tauziet.
The execution
A firm can build the best design assets, but it’s the implementation stage that can make or break the rebranding process and efforts.
Having a close collaboration process with Plaid’s leaders, as well as carefully planning out the rebrand roll out stage contributed to making the execution stage successful:
Getting executive buy-in: “The strength of our new brand comes from its foundation in strategy and our close partnership with our CEO, Zach Perret, and President, Jen Taylor, through every step of its creation. They weren’t stakeholders to be presented to; they were part of the core project team, collaborating closely with our internal brand and product design teams on a weekly basis,” said Mounsey and Tauziet.
Technological lift : Plaid started working on its rebrand in Q1 of 2024. The turnaround time is relatively short for such an extensive change, especially given the many customers, businesses, financial institutions that the firm touches.
“While finalizing the brand system’s core assets, we also performed extensive content audits of our digital and physical collateral to gauge the lift required to “flip” our brand surfaces and made prioritized plans for creation and dedicating the necessary internal resources to make launch a success on an accelerated timeline,” said Mounsey and Tauziet, adding further that teams across all time zones were made to prioritize the rebranding efforts with the executives, diverting resources when necessary.
The team also expects to put this design to work in the real world, featuring it in the firm’s tradeshow appearances and in Plaid’s annual customer conference, Effects.
Measuring success
To ensure that the rebrand achieves its goals, the firm is monitoring marketing-related KPIs across its digital footprint and campaigns. But the firm also plans on tracking employer brand metrics like applicant volumes and employee engagement data points, as well as “qualitative and qualitative data from our in-person experiences, selling journey, and direct customer feedback. And of course, we’ll be performing regular brand health studies to keep the pulse on brand perception shifts and brand awareness lift,” said Mounsey and Tauziet.
Sidebar: Wise’s bold rebrand
Sidebar is a member-exclusive section, if you want to keep reading please consider becoming a TS Pro member by clicking below.
I recently sat down with Dan Snyder, CEO and co-founder of Lower, to discuss the evolving landscape of mortgage lending. Lower was founded in 2014 and has grown into one of the largest venture-backed home lenders in the United States. Dan is driven by a commitment to simplifying the home financing process through technology.
“We’re not just building a mortgage company,” says Snyder. “We’re creating a comprehensive platform. It will make homeownership more accessible, especially for younger buyers.” Fresh off its acquisition of NeatLabs, Lower’s new proprietary platform, LowerOS, promises to reduce the cost and complexity of mortgage origination. Snyder bootstrapped his startup and went on to raise Ohio’s largest Series A, showcasing resilience and vision. His journey offers valuable lessons in leadership and innovation. It also highlights how to navigate the challenges of a volatile housing market. The conversation explores key topics like the role of venture capital in professionalizing a business, the strategic importance of owning a full tech stack, and the opportunities presented by serving next-generation home buyers.
Lower’s Journey: From Bootstrapping to Venture-Backed Growth
Dan Snyder and his co-founder, Mike, launched Lower in 2014 with a focus on profitability and reinvesting earnings. But, by 2020, they recognized the need for external funding to scale their vision. “If you’re going to raise money, it’s about fueling growth and getting on the radar of other investors,” explains Snyder. Their $100 million Series A from Accel provided crucial resources and strategic guidance. The partnership fueled their growth and strengthened their vision.
The NeatLabs Acquisition: Building a Tech-Driven Future
A pivotal moment for Lower came with their acquisition of NeatLabs, a technology company specializing in mortgage solutions. “We needed a complete tech stack to control our destiny,” says Snyder. This move brought experienced engineers and a robust technology infrastructure into the company. It helped in setting the stage for the launch of LowerOS. The platform simplifies tasks like digital pre-approvals, document management, and loan pricing. Its goal is to make these processes more efficient and user-friendly.
LowerOS: Streamlining the Home Loan Process
LowerOS is designed to address the inefficiencies in the traditional mortgage process. Snyder says, “Owning our tech stack reduces costs and eliminates reliance on third-party software.” LowerOS sets Lower apart from competitors like Rocket Mortgage with their proprietary systems. It gives Lower an edge in the market.
Supporting First-Time Home Buyers
The average first-time home buyer is now 38 years old and facing affordability issues. Lower is focused on addressing these challenges. Their goal is to make homeownership more accessible to these buyers. “We think about incubating our next-gen customers,” Snyder shares. Lower uses financial education and digital tools to prepare younger buyers for homeownership by making the buying process easier and more accessible.
Balancing Technology with Human Connection
While Lower leverages technology, it also emphasizes the importance of a human touch. “It’s technology with a handshake,” says Snyder. The company’s local loan officers work closely with customers. They combine digital convenience with personalized service to create an end-to-end home loan experience.
The Big Ideas
Venture Capital as a Catalyst for Growth.“Raising money allowed us to professionalize the business and access top talent,” says Snyder. He highlights the impact of Accel’s investment.
The Strategic Importance of Owning Technology. “We didn’t want to rely on third-party software that didn’t align with our goals,” Snyder notes. LowerOS is the result of this strategic decision.
Challenges in Serving Next-Gen Buyers. “The average income for first-time buyers is over $200,000. We’re working to bring that down by improving affordability,” Snyder explains.
Adapting to Market Volatility. Snyder highlights that inventory and interest rates are major challenges. But, technology can help reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Combining Tech with Human Expertise.“Even with digital tools, a 15-minute conversation can save hours of back-and-forth,” says Snyder. He emphasizes the value of human interaction.
Franklin bridges the gap between Web3 and traditional finance, rethinking how businesses manage payroll and payments. Today’s podcast features Megan Knab, Franklin’s CEO. She shares insights into the transformative role of blockchain in financial operations. She has a vision: leveraging blockchain to modernize payroll and financial tools. Megan has a rich fintech background comprised of roles at Serotonin, DriveWealth, and Veriledger.
As an accountant by trade, Megan is no stranger to navigating financial systems. She became passionate about blockchain in business school after discovering an accounting fraud at work. “Public blockchains,” she recalls, “have the power to create an open financial system.”
Megan founded Franklin two years ago to simplify financial operations for Web3 businesses. She focuses on making finance easier and more efficient. She notes, “Anyone who’s used payroll software in the last 10 years knows it can be an antiquated experience.” Franklin integrates both fiat and on-chain payment capabilities. This strategy allows it to operate in both Web3 and traditional finance. As a result, Franklin is carving out a unique niche in both areas.
Crypto and financial tools
Megan highlights blockchain’s potential to enhance back-office operations for B2B organizations. She notes, “Stablecoins can leapfrog current payroll technologies by facilitating faster payments.” She also explains that blockchain’s immutability ensures greater accuracy in financial reporting. This also builds trust in the data. “By using public ledgers, businesses can reduce errors and streamline audits. This creates efficiencies that traditional systems struggle to match,” Megan adds.
Blockchain’s ability to integrate with existing payment systems is driving innovation. This is creating new financial tools for modern business needs.
Tax compliance and crypto
One of Franklin’s standout features is its focus on tax compliance. Megan explains, “We build tools that ensure every transaction adheres to federal and state regulations.” She emphasizes that Franklin’s proactive approach simplifies navigating the regulatory maze. “With over 675 tax jurisdictions in the U.S., automation is critical for ensuring accurate reporting. And avoiding costly errors,” Megan notes. This commitment makes Franklin a trusted partner for businesses handling complex payroll systems.
Decentralized finance for B2B
Megan believes decentralized finance (DeFi) has practical use cases for businesses. ” We’re helping companies operate seamlessly in fiat and crypto. Whether it is multi-currency payroll or international remittances,” she says.
She also highlights the cost advantages of DeFi. “Businesses can reduce transaction fees and enhance payment speed. It does so by eliminating intermediaries. These are critical factors for today’s global operations,” Megan explains.
Early Wage Access without loans
Franklin’s approach to early wage access differs from traditional models. Megan critiques typical earned wage access programs as “modern payday lending”. She advocates for faster money movement using stablecoins instead. She adds, “Why burden employees with hidden loan agreements when we can facilitate instant payouts?” This method empowers workers and also minimizes administrative overhead for businesses. Franklin uses stablecoins to provide an alternative to outdated payroll systems. This creates more flexibility for both employers and employees.
The Path Forward: Privacy and adoptionof crypto
For broader blockchain adoption, Megan identifies a need for privacy technologies. “Financial institutions will continue experimenting rather than integrating. This will happen until we address privacy concerns.” she asserts.
She highlights solutions like zk-SNARKs as promising but notes their computational expense. “The key lies in enabling selective disclosure of transaction data. It includes ensuring both compliance and confidentiality,” Megan explains. She envisions a future where blockchain is a core part of financial infrastructure — not just an experiment. Advances in privacy tech can make this possible.
The Big Ideas
1. Blockchain Drives Transparency and Efficiency. Megan states, “Public blockchains can create transparency in financial systems. But adoption in heavily regulated industries remains challenging.”
2. Multi-Currency Payroll Is a Necessity for Modern Businesses. Franklin’s tools enable businesses to pay in both fiat and stablecoins. “This flexibility is crucial for modern, remote-first teams,” Megan explains.
3. Tax Compliance Is Key to Crypto Adoption. “With over 675 tax jurisdictions in the U.S. alone,” Megan points out, “building a compliant payroll system is no small task, but it’s essential.”
4. Faster Payroll Cycles Empower Both Employers and Employees. Megan challenges traditional pay cycles. She asks, “Why should employees give interest-free loans to their employers? Stablecoins offer a faster alternative.”
5. Bridging Traditional Finance and Decentralized Systems Is the Real Opportunity. Megan underscores the importance of hybrid models. She says, “Real market potential lies in bridging traditional finance with decentralized systems.”
Coast stands out in fintech with its interactive API demos.
Kara Parkey, head of strategic accounts at Coast, shares insights on the Tearsheet podcast as to why her firm is working with many of the best fintech brands. It’s that Coast visually simplifies the complexity of API products, making their service essential in today’s fast-changing financial world.
Coast lets users view APIs in action, making vendor and partner presentations interactive. It turns static PowerPoints into dynamic, live experiences. According to Kara, “It’s like seeing APIs come to life.” This is especially valuable for fintech companies focused on the API economy and open banking. It resonates with those driving innovation in these areas.
How Coast pioneers API demos in fintech
Kara explains that Coast’s demos are not just about showcasing APIs. They are about transforming how potential clients experience them. Traditionally, fintech companies relied on static prototypes or lengthy technical documentation. Coast provides a live demo environment. Kara describes it as “a unique URL branded for the client.” This allows users to interact with the APIs in a realistic setting. This approach is especially appealing in fintech, where embedded finance is becoming more common, aligning with the growing trend in the industry.
Impact on sales cycle and Time to Value
One of the significant advantages Coast offers is the reduction of time of the sales cycle. Kara highlights a case study with Sardine, where Coast helped cut the sales cycle by 20% to 25%. This efficiency comes from cutting down the time needed to build demos. It also gives account executives a tool to easily explain complex APIs. As a result, the process is faster and simpler. “It’s huge for embedded technology,” Kara emphasizes. She points out how it aids in reaching both technical and non-technical buyers.
Facilitating API integration and onboarding
Coast’s technology also simplifies the onboarding process, enabling clients to get up and running swiftly. Kara notes that while typical onboarding can take 30 days to 60 days, some clients go live within a week. Coast enables quick setup by using existing API documentation. Companies can import their APIs and build stories around them easily. No deep technical integration is required.
How Coast meets the needs of Financial Institutions
As Open Banking and Section 1033 expand, financial institutions are updating their APIs. The pressure to upgrade is increasing. Kara mentions that Coast is actively engaging with banks to help them “increase adoption of their APIs and make it more scalable.” The ability to visualize complex data flows in a secure environment is crucial for banks. It helps them navigate these new regulatory landscapes.
Ensuring security and compliancewithin Coast
Security is paramount in the fintech industry. Kara says that Coast takes this seriously. Coast reduces compliance risks by serving as a visual overlay instead of storing sensitive information. This approach minimizes data security concerns. Kara states, “We are your API documentation, just a visual representation.” She says that Coast’s solutions integrate without compromising data integrity.
The Big Ideaswith Coast
Coast’s Interactive Demostransform static API presentations into dynamic, live experiences. This enhances client engagement. Kara explains, “We visually simplify the complexity of API products. You can see APIs firing live… marrying that journey for technical and non-technical buyers.”
Sales cycle efficiency is prioritized. Coast’s tools help fintechs like Sardine significantly reduce their sales cycles. This improves time to value. Kara shares a case study, stating, “We did a case study with Sardine… collapsing their sales cycle time to value by 20% to 25%.”
Coast focuses on streamlined onboarding. It facilitates quicker API integration, enabling clients to go live in record time. Kara notes, “We’ve had clients go live in a week… it’s a visual representation of your API documentation.”
Security and compliance focus is integral to the company. Coast ensures data integrity by acting as a visual representation of API documentation. It does so without storing sensitive information. Kara assures, “We are your API documentation, just a visual representation… no PII or anything like that.”
Coast focuses on partnerships with Financial Institutions. The tech firm supports banks in adopting Open Banking standards by offering scalable API visualization solutions. Kara mentions, “We are looking to work with a lot of banks, very focused on helping them increase adoption of their APIs.”
In 2023, Wise launched a rebrand that has the potential to make it into design school curricula. With its citrusy green, bold typography, and painterly approach to 3D visuals, the Wise brand today is unforgettable without being overwhelming.
In today’s story, we do a deep dive into the impetus behind this rebrand, its scope, how it was executed, and the results the brand has seen since the unveiling of the splashy new look last year.
Problem statement: Reflecting growth and maintaining recognition
The shedding of the word “Transfer” in Wise’s name came before the new look. The company was slowly building towards its new identity driven by its growth in terms of geographies it served, as well as the products it offered. Wise was no longer just about sending money – it had products that enabled customers to hold and spend money and it touched more people now than ever before.
The challenge, however, was making sure that the firm does not lose the trust customers had with the company and its brand recognition as it went through its metamorphosis, according to the firm’s CMO Cian Weeresinghe.
To ensure customers moved with the firm, the team at Wise decided to march as one. “This [maintaining brand recognition] was no easy feat, and required intense coordination and collaboration across multiple teams and channels including paid marketing, PR, CRM, brand systems, product discovery, organic social, and customer service,” said Ciam.
The Wise rebrand has been so successful because every part of the business feels like a vignette out of the same story.
The remit: A redesign with expanse and depth
Wise feels different since its rebrand. It feels alive and exciting. Chasing ephemeral feelings is difficult but if there is anything that can make you feel closer to a brand and view it with renewed excitement, it’s design.
And Wise’s new look was all encompassing. It’s hard to remember what Wise looked like before because the pieces today fit so well together. The same cannot be said for rebrands like that of Twitter, where the X and flat blacks only evoke nostalgia for better days.
Here is what Wise changed in the rebrand and how the firm thought about each piece:
a) Color Palette: The most noticeable change for Wise was perhaps the shift in its primary colors. The firm went from a safe blue to an energetic and electric green. “Wise doesn’t think of itself as a bank. It doesn’t act like a bank. The new green color represented a chance to make that stand again against what is a sea of sameness when it comes to other financial services brands,” said the firm’s VP of Brand Strategy, Iona Carter.
Carter also shared that the green helped with evocation by representing money and progress. Another important consideration for the wider color palette was accessibility. Testing and consumer feedback played an important role here in ensuring that the new look met both WCAG guidelines as well as APAC color standards.
b) Visual Elements: Some of the best global brand identities and designs, like Apple, use 3D elements. Wise was one of the first brands to really own the 3D direction and is still one of the few brands in the financial services industry, particularly, to do so.
The Wise homepage today is dominated by a green-blue 3D globe that is orbited by currencies from various countries. The connection to Wise’s global nature and financial focus is clear from the outset. It was this globe that inspired the adoption of the 3D assets into other areas of the Wise website, says Carter.
The impetus for going in the 3D direction was the same as that for choosing green: Wise wanted to be distinctive and it wasn’t afraid to lean in. “2D illustrations are pretty rote at this point within brand identity systems,” said Carter.
3D design elements are more powerful than some may think. The gaming industry entered a new era when video games stopped being 2D and built immersive worlds by playing with light, environment, and movement. 3D visual elements give a sense of depth and realism, driving deeper engagement and connection.
For 3D illustrations texture is an important consideration, and Wise made what the firm calls “graphic tapestries” inspired by bank notes and visual elements from historical places, to come up with a painterly effect that gives these elements a rich, plush, and smooth feel.
“There’s enough thinking and theory now, at least in academic circles, around the importance of really distinctive assets for a brand,” said Carter.
c) Photography: Photographs help with feeling familiarity and grounding the design in the real world. For the rebrand, Wise wanted the photograph to emulate the dynamism that its other assets had.
“It’s challenging as a brand with a global reach to feel local, but also communicate globally. We felt photography was one element that we could really lean into that would enable us to do that,” said Carter.
The new photography came after careful art direction, and engenders a sense of movement, candid moments that represent real people, real emotions, and real moments from people’s lives.
The process: Keeping an eye on the ball and finding the right design partners
The Wise rebrand is successful not just because of what the firm accomplished, but also because of how it was done. From internal championing of the rebrand, deployment, to finding the right design company to work with, the processes of this rebrand are integral to the firm’s success with the project.
a) Deployment: Given that the digital touchpoints were now going to contain graphic-heavy assets, the team thought about how these designs will be implemented and deployed in customers’ experiences from day one, according to Carter.
“We were thinking about how what we built was going to be compatible with the Wise app, how it would work across desktop environments as well as how we could build a system that was ultimately simple but very scalable. We have a whole team now that just owns this remit called, ‘Brand Systems’,” said Carter.
She also shared that the firm has invested more heavily in building this team since the rebrand, with Brand Systems having grown considerably since the rebrand first rolled out.
b) Internal champions: With a wide ranging rebrand like this that impacts both high level things like color palette but also microinteractions, it’s important to keep reminding teams why they are doing what they are doing to act as a homing signal.
“Its an often overlooked job for any team that is spearheading a rebrand internally. [You need a] continual drum beat, that reminds people why we are doing this and contextualizing it,” Carter added.
c) Find the right partner: For the rebrand, Wise worked with Ragged Edge, a branding agency based in London, which has also worked with brands like Papier and Monzo. “We worked extremely closely with the Ragged Edge team, at every stage of the process, from ideation all the way through to how is this going to roll out in the product,” Carter shared.
Once the rebrand was done, Wise decided to continue its relationship with Ragged Edge, deciding that brand management, evolution, and design is a continuous process:
“The team intentionally opted to keep them in a retainer capacity. Because, the work of a rebrand, and in some ways, is never done. We’ve continued to work with them, albeit on a lower drum beat.”
The results are in
Not all rebrands reinvigorate excitement about the firm. Twitter’s rebrand to X actually led to its downloads dropping, as well as a 4% drop in active users. This is despite the fact that the firm was now attached to the most famous tech personality in the world, Elon Musk.
For Wise, however, the numbers tell a positive story. For the financial year of 2024, 48% of personal customers and 60% of business customers are using more than one Wise product in comparison to 36% and 55% respectively in 2023, according to the firm’s CMO Weeresinghe.
The firm’s overall growth also reflects the success of the rebrand, with the firm experiencing a 34% YOY growth in the first year (2022-2023) after the new identity’s launch and another 29% growth to 12.8 million active customers by the end of the financial year 2024.
The above graphic is created by Tearsheet using assets from the Wise website.
Sidebar: Branding makes perfect
Branding can be a powerful tool for communicating a firm’s core message, values, ethos, and personality to customers. And the more creatively a firm things about using assets and channels, the better.
Some time back the brand ran an interactive ad campaign called the “K-rated”. The ads had scannable pixelated images which curious customers would have to scan to get information of the product and access to deals. The whole campaign took inspiration from sex and porn and turned it into an interactive shopping experience. Klarna worked with the creative agency Thinkerbell on the campaign and Thinkerbell founder, Adam Ferrier told me that the idea was developed collaboratively by the two companies.
“Creating scarcity, or making something seem like it’s not easily available has the impact of people wanting to see it more. We used this psychological tool to make everyday objects seem ‘k-rated’, and could only be viewed via scanning the item via a QR code,” Ferrier said.
Another modality for brand and design heads to consider is sound. Think of sonic branding as a brand’s auditory handshake – it’s what ties the object (brand) to its attributes (convenient, trustworthy, etc.) in consumers’ minds.
“Sonic branding can be leveraged to build recall and association between brands and their campaigns and special products/services. Specifically in the financial services sector, sound branding can provide levels of assurance to the consumer surrounding the exchange of money or services,” said Austin Coates, Research & Insights Consultant at amp, a sonic branding agency.
