How a fintech startup proved concept with paid social

When startups create something that’s never existed before, it’s scary. Is any one going to buy it? Is there demand? Will people even realize a need for the brand new gizmo or gadget? is my research wrong?!

That’s the challenge we helped tackle with WindShare, a fintech startup. WindShare seeks to leverage the power of crowdfunding and growing consumer demand for renewable energy by creating a way for everyday folks to invest in community wind farms. Historically you’d have to be considered an accredited investor to get your money to back wind farm development. Basically, you’d have to have really high net worth. WindShare wants to change that, but first they needed to communicate a really complex financial process and validate their hunch that people would be willing to buy “wind shares” for about $100 each. Here’s how we helped them on both fronts.

Data-driven branding

Before a single line of code was written, a single piece of creative conceived, we led WindShare through our Lake One Brand Truth™ process. We worked to uncover insights into what WindShare was, who it wanted to reach and how it was going to appeal.

Through guided discussions, iteration and a blend of qualitative and quantitative analysis, we crafted a brand architecture that informed the creative expression for WindShare from identity and interactive to copy and positioning.

With a brand architecture in place we could confidently communicate about complex financial processes to every day people and let them know that thanks to WindShare, now Everyone can invest in renewable energy. 

Minimum viable marketing

Once we nailed down who, what and why with our brand architecture, we used it as a north star for our next growth phase, minimum viable product (MVP) marketing.We needed to answer the question, is anyone really interested in a financial product that allows you to invest in a bond backed by community wind energy proceeds? Our MVP marketing included message strategy, ad strategy, and PR/influencer strategy to test concept prior to a public offering.

To find out we crafted a marketing strategy leveraging insights from our brand architecture, knowing who we wanted to reach, how we wanted to communicate about WindShare and put together a blended test of paid/owned and earned tactics to test concept prior to a public offering.

In the first 30 days of launching, we secured more than a dozen media placements, leveraged smart paid media buys and tapped into social conversations to elevate the WindShare brand.

One of the most critical questions was could we beat a cost of acquisition built into the business model. Since launching WindShare brand and marketing strategy, WindShare has not only met it’s MVP cost of acquisition goals, it’s exceeded them more than 6x.