Fin Tech
MazumaGo
WEBSITE CASE STUDY
Who has time to look in the mirror when they’re busy creating social impact and shaping the future? After a period of rapid growth, our longtime client Mission North came to us for a website re-do and brand update that would reflect the company they’d become.
The opportunity
Making moves in finance
MazumaGo is a financial startup located in Victoria BC. They offer simple money transfers across Canada as an alternative to banks. In an industry known for crawling innovation, their team is always asking the question, “Why isn’t it easier to send money in 2020?”
The original company name they came to us with, DivDot, was used for previous company iterations. After finding traction in modern business payments at a flat fee with no limits, they were ready for the next evolution. They wanted a new name, tagline, brand (including logo, colors, typography etc.), and website, and we delivered.
Our Strategy
The challenge
Believable payment innovation
The finance industry in Canada is dominated by established brands that have been around for almost as long as the country itself. Names like BMO, Scotiabank and RBC come with an assumed trust, but they also come with low expectations for ease of use and transparency.
MazumaGo entered the scene ready to upend the status quo. They weren’t replacing banks—they even used the same rails. But they weren’t going to settle for their archaic payment methods either. Just because cheques and wire transfers are still a necessary evil, doesn’t mean they should be.
Our challenge was to create a brand and website that brought energy and innovation to a stale industry, without losing any of the trust needed to convert leads.
The research
A foundation across perspectives
We like to start each renaming project with an interactive workshop to get a sense of the brand and team. We pull 4-5 employees across seniority, department, and role. Then we ask them a series of guided questions for a full picture snapshot of the company.
With MazumaGo, after going from curious monkeys, to miming money transfers, and graciously accepting mock awards, this workshop pulled some important themes to the forefront. Doug Brown, a local branding expert who helped to lead the session, navigated their relationship with the banking industry, fears around security and more.
We also spoke with customers to gather insight into their experience with MazumaGo. What led them to try it? What do they love about it most now? Overwhelmingly, we heard that no limits and the simplicity of the product were a huge draw for them. Further audience research also revealed that return on investment in cost was important too.
Lastly, we looked at their competitors. It quickly became clear that the more traditional banks used safe colors, and were not very transparent in features, function or price. Opportunity here? We thought so.
The direction
Bold simplicity and trusted transparency
With a complete picture of where their team wanted to be as a brand, what resonated with customers, and how they could stand out from the competition, we were ready to begin.
Our naming goal was to increase the energy of the brand. The team was passionate about revolutionizing business payments and making money move—unlike slower banks so the name had to support that. (And actually have a domain available).
In the end, we decided on the name MazumaGo (Ma-ZOO-ma-go). Mazuma is slang for money and the ‘Go’ emphasizes the ease of movement that their product offers.
Next, we needed a visual style to support the energy of the new brand and further stand out against traditional banks.
We presented three distinct style boards to the MazumaGo team. They gravitated towards the one that represented the bold and empowering aspect of their product. They weren’t afraid to disrupt the status quo so their style shouldn’t either.
When we started bringing the new name, logo and style into the website design, we were ready to further emphasize the simplicity of MazumaGo. We baked ease of use and a bold tone into the copy and imagery, and created a clear distinction between them and slow, clunky banks. Pair that with a simple logo portraying the simplicity of two-way transfers and a tagline grounding them in the world of business payments, and we had a solid brand foundation.
We were also careful to maximize transparency, particularly on the pricing page.
We kept security and customer trust top of mind through this process. We couldn’t sacrifice a sense of trust to make a statement so we were intentional about weaving social proof throughout the site.
We added clear regulatory and client logos across key pages, moved the Security page into the primary navigation, and placed quality customer stories on every main page across the site.
Lastly, we didn’t count on our own expertise alone to decide if we had struck the perfect balance of differentiation and trust.
We did a round of user testing to ask specific questions to determine how the brand and content resonated with customers. In the feedback, we heard overwhelmingly that the unique brand actually made prospects want to give them a chance. They loved the simplicity, transparency and cheeky tone.
Our Solution
The moral of the story
Championing your customer
When a startup first launches, many of its early customers come from within their existing network. These early adopters become beachhead customers into new verticals. Then their positive experience can be critical social proof for similar prospects.
If brands want these early adopters or brand evangelist stories to resonate, they need to feel authentic. Far too often we see traditional testimonials with a quote and a name, but it’s hard to build trust around something that could be fake. So how do you increase the believability and value of a customer story?
For MazumaGo, we thoroughly interviewed customers to gather their backstory, key pain points, favourite features and statistics around time or money saved. But we didn’t stop there.
Next, we worked with Cassie O’Neil, a local photographer who captured shots of customers working in their specific industry. One venture capitalist was seen in her office while another leader at a tableware brand was seen in his home surrounded by dishes.
Real photography mixed with a compelling story created a narrative that prospects could instantly connect with. We made it as easy to understand the value for themselves.
"The One Net team exceeded our expectations with every delivery. From interactive workshops, over creative planning, to the technical implementation – they have experts in every area who deliver outstanding quality results.”
Matthew Smith, CEO & Founder
“We loved working with the insanely creative bunch from One Net. While they took all the heavy lifting and background work from our shoulders, we felt included in the process and decision making throughout the entire project. The end result is way beyond what we could have achieved internally.”
Miri Radar, Marketing Manager