Changing perspectives: from advertising agencies to helping a company fulfill its purpose.
How my ideas about financial services companies and name tags were proved wrong.
Nowadays, “purpose” is a popular word, but in some situations it doesn’t mean what it is supposed to. The first time that I heard about SumUp I came across this word once again, and this time it actually made sense. Let me back up a little. My whole career was in advertising agencies (tiny ones, huge ones, you name it) and after 10 years it was really wearing me out. I wasn’t happy with the projects I was working on, and ultimately I became dissatisfied with advertising agencies in general.
I was searching for a new job that my “very particular set of skills”, acquired in all those years as a designer, could be put to good use. However, I never thought I’d end up in a financial services company and wearing a name tag (in my advertising days I used to make fun of people with their corporate jobs wearing name tags, which is a very common thing here in Brazil, so the joke was really on me. LOL.) So there I was, with my name tag, my notebook, and a lot to learn in this new environment: TPV, card readers, acquirer — a bunch of new words. But there was also an old one — purpose. I saw this word’s meaning in every corner of this company.
After a few weeks of finding my feet, I was assigned to a project: launch a campaign for a new card reader — wait for it — with a small fraction of the budget for production (the big bucks would go to Online Marketing) and a short deadline. Long story short, finally I was ready to get stuff done. The product is really great, with free 3g signal and a long-lasting battery (we named the CR SumUp On, ’cause it’s — almost — always on). Therefore, we needed to create something equally great. In spite of the boundaries that we had, the whole team got together to figure out the concept and gather references for a mood board. The teamwork seemed to come so naturally, and it was clear that the collaborative culture here made this possible.
With the work done, it was time to take it to the streets and see if the campaign would resonate with an audience. And it did! The card reader had solid launch numbers, and by week 15, sales were 8 times higher than those during week 1. The new card reader slotted neatly into our existing brand portfolio, and our ads were recognised by Facebook as an example of a successful campaign. The results were positive, and both the team and the wider company were thrilled with the work. But to see that I’m in a great workplace, where everybody gets involved and the sense of purpose isn’t just a punchline, was the positive result for me.
