Case Study 004 → Betterment
Rebranding fintech with feeling—and a little financial honesty.
Launched in 2008 as an antidote to conventional investing services, the fintech pioneer came to my former agency, Trollback+Company seeking to invigorate its brand by unlocking the full potential of its innovative, human-centric spirit. In 2019, we designed a new brand strategy, visual identity, logo design, iconography, UI framework and more designed to humanize the brand in amid the stark, sameness of FinTech at the time. Highlights of my contributions to the project included:
– Developing pitch materials and case studies showcasing the studio’s expertise in digital products and new technologies that helped land the client.
– Conducting research on the brand’s core audience — working millenials — and their burdens of false promises and unattainable ideals regarding financial goals and so-called “wealth management.”
– Articulating a sharpened purpose, “Making People’s Lives Better,” and developing an accompanying voice/copy system designed to enable the brand to deliver an experience that’s both personal and powerful.
– Writing, editing, and proofreading a comprehensive brand kit of visual directions, color pallettes, illustration systems, UI frameworks, and animation toolkits that helped bring this new vision to life across brand touchpoints and platforms.
Insights: The future of FinTech isn’t in shiny new platforms that pop up overnight. It’s about new players in a traditionally opaque industry creating value through becoming a transparent, clear-eyed, and credible partner that educates and advocates for its clients. While we were researching and developing the brand and voice for Betterment, it became rapidly clear to us that millenials have a very complicated relationship with money, one that financial providers continue to gloss over and fumble to this day. The democratization of investing is one of the most powerful tools young generations have at their fingertips to level the playing field, and working with a brand like Betterment truly showed me the power of saying straight out: it’s about way more than just the money.
Impact: Coverage in major industry/trade publications, including Transform Magazine, UnderConsideration, Crowdfund Insider, and more. One client callback for a later campaign focused on Betterment’s Socially Responsible Investing portfolio. I remain an active client of Betterment to this day.