brand anthem

the launch of a new creative platform for years to come

problem

Our approach to brand building was costly and short-sighted. We relied on large agencies for biennial campaigns that cost upwards of €2 million each, and a campaign that had no life beyond its launch window. No platform to build on. No creative equity carried forward. Just a lot of money spent resetting from zero. Next to this the industry was changing. We were shifting from Payment processor (just handling payments), to Financial technology platform (also offering banking services, creditcard, and business capital).

solution

Clearly launching our new narrative around Financial technology, I helped shift our approach by leveraging internal strategy and talent, combined with targeted external help. We developed a flexible creative platform rooted in what Adyen genuinely is. Not a campaign with an end date. But a foundation to build on. Produced for €100k, and the starting point for longer running campaigns. Our Brand Tracker showed incredible results: Global awareness of Adyen jumped from 58% to 77% in a year. Top-of-mind awareness nearly doubled, from 10% to 19%. In the US, the number of prospects who wouldn't consider Adyen because they "didn't know enough about the brand" was cut nearly in half, dropping from 24% to 13%. The platform is still running and the starting point for our rebrand (see other project).

The brief going in was deceptively simple: pivot to Financial technology and (in the process) make Adyen more known. The real challenge was more uncomfortable, we'd been spending a lot of money on work that didn't stick.

The insight that unlocked everything was leaning into what Adyen actually is. Not a payments company that sounds exciting. A company built by engineers, for serious enterprise businesses, that delivers on what it promises. Engineered for Ambition wasn't a tagline we invented, it was a truth we named.

From there it was about building a system, not a campaign. Visuals, motion, messaging, tone, all designed to be modular, extendable, and ownable. Something the internal team could pick up and run with. Which they did.

The North America push was where it really moved the needle. The US market was our biggest awareness gap, and the "don't know enough about Adyen" blocker was real. Cutting that from 24% to 13% in one year isn't just a brand metric, it directly opens commercial conversations that weren't happening before.

The thing I'm most proud of isn't the numbers. It's that the platform is still being used. That's the actual measure of whether a creative strategy worked.

year

2023

timeframe

16 days

tools

Framer