Creating engagement to drive qualified leads for a startup fintech brand.
Equidate (Forge) Fintech Branding & Launch Marketing Campaign
Equidate (re-named Forge) is unlocking the private, pre-IPO market. They created new ways for startups to generate liquidity, as well as potentially higher-returning investments for accredited investors and institutions. Not to mention the ability for startup employees to sell private shares ahead of an IPO. Our job was to generate awareness and intrigue among startup employees for this fintech brand.
Everyone loves a good secret.
Our research suggested that the idea of selling pre-IPO equity was, in a very real way, secret knowledge. Most startup employees had no idea this was possible. Inspired by popular culture apps like Blind or Fishbowl (and just our natural human attraction to gossip) we created “Secrets of Startups.” We bought the entire CalTrain station in San Francisco, and for a month ran outdoor advertising banners and posters that “hid” secret messages behind other languages.
We designed and developed the website secretsofstartups.com, where our audience could translate the messages from the outdoor advertising. They could also add a secret of their own. Some of which, as part of our content strategy, later made their way into digital and social advertising for this startup fintech brand.
The biggest secret revealed.
After 30 days and hundreds of submitted secrets, we solved the mystery by refreshing the ad-space, revealing the true the biggest secret of them all: that you can sell your shares pre-IPO with Equidate, now Forge, a leading fintech brand.
“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.”
